


The Unlucky 13th

by SupportKrisTianDi



Series: Powers AU [1]
Category: EXO (Band), SHINee
Genre: M/M, Mystery, Violence, and everyone will get a happy ending, everything will be revealed, i edited the tags lol they were so cringy, like just confess already, people being idiots, powers au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2018-12-10 21:46:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11700498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SupportKrisTianDi/pseuds/SupportKrisTianDi
Summary: It was just another day at school when Taemin was faced with Jongin in many situations in one day, right? Almost cliche-like...Except now he accidently killed someone, he's dealing with these 12 weirdos, his four friends think Jongin and him are dating, and........Taemin sort of wants to.....





	1. I Have No Idea What Is Going On

**Author's Note:**

> This is my FIRST fanfic, and I have to admit, it's fun to go crazy with the tags. My sister really ships Taekai and told me that there aren't any long ones here, so out of a whim I said I will make her a LONG series. Her other ships will be here as well. 
> 
> Be patient please! If you find errors, tell me! I hope you enjoy! I might make an EXO-only fic later with your ships (Kaisoo if you want, even if my sister kills me). Comments are appreciated. 
> 
> I wrote this on a google doc, and I just realize I wrote Suho's real name wrong. Sorry.

It was a warm, cozy-like spring weekday at 9:36 am when Lee Taemin realized he was about two hours late for school. 

It started like most days, really. Sometimes he wakes up with his alarm, and sometimes he wakes up up to an hour before it rings feeling completely refreshed. However, he had been having a drowsy headache all morning, and he thought he would just wait for the alarm on his phone. 

The headache never went away, though. And he fell asleep again. When he couldn’t bear it anymore, he decided to wake up early and take a pill instead of waiting for the alarm like he planned two. He got up from his bed, rubbed his eyes a little, and, since he couldn’t find his phone, just stared at the digital clock for about 4.02 seconds before realization. 

“Oh, look it’s NINE THIRTY SIX!!!! WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING?!?!” he shouted as he literally jumped from his bed, sending his blanket sheets tumbling down to the floor. 

The next three minutes was like forwarding a video footage. 

Minute one: Put sweatpants over pajama shorts. Put hoodie over white tank. Put black converse on his feet. Don’t bother looking for socks. 

Minute two: Brush hair for ten seconds. Notice that it didn’t do anything, but ignore that fact. Eat 5 mint mentos since you don’t have time to brush your teeth. Look for you phone, which turned out to be under his pillow with no battery. 

Minute three: Find pocket charger thingie with cable. Get keys and wallet from the kitchen counter. Grab your backpack hanging in the foyer closet. Go back upstairs because you forgot your Pre Calc homework. Go back downstairs and get out the door. 

Honestly, it usually takes him about fifteen minutes, but he didn’t like to be late for school. And two hours? Really?

Either way, after pulling every red light that was possible, he managed to, somehow, arrive safely at school at 9:54. He came in just in time for his second period, AP Biology. 

He walked in the class, pass in hand, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. After handing the pass to his teacher, earning a few weird looks from his classmates, he walked down the rows and sat in his seat, which was empty. 

The teacher resumed to teaching the lesson, and Taemin proceeded to take out his notebook and pencils, looking around to notice that he would have a ton of notes to catch up with later tonight. Great. 

Suddenly, a sharp pain went through his right shoulder blade. Wondering where the heck the pain came from, Taemin turned around and was faced with Jinki (or Onew as they sometimes called him), holding a shiny pencil in his hand. Taemin then continued to smack it out of his hand, which sent it rolling across the floor. 

“Hey, Taemin. Where were you this morning?” his whispered. “Key has been bugging me all morning, saying you promised to give him your English notes. We even texted you!”

“Yeah, well, my phone is dead,” Taemin whispered back. He pulled his smartphone from his pocket and waved it under Onew’s nose. “My alarm was on my phone, which is why it didn’t ring.”

“We thought you were dead under the bleachers, figuring you pissed off someone,” Onew replied. 

Instead of replying back, Taemin decided to take Onew’s notebook and smack his head with it. “You’re stupid.”

“Which is why we are in school, idiot,” Onew replied back. 

Taemin turned his head around to face his desk again when someone threw the shiny pencil back on his desk. Confused, he turned around once again to see who returned the pencil.

No one was looking back at him. 

\------

“Wait, so… you weren’t dead under the bleachers?” Jonghyun asked, pretending to be innocent. 

“I’m not going to answer any more questions.” Taemin kept ignoring Jonghyun's pleas and continued to munch on his lunch, which consisted of American food today: A pepper jack cheeseburger, curly fries, grapes, and a can of lemon lime soda. He wanted to buy a ton of more food due to him skipping breakfast; however, he had three dollars in his wallet. Oh well. 

“Oh, come on. Tell us.” Minho pleaded. Knowing Taemin wouldn’t give up, Minho decided to throw his French fries on Taemin’s face, in which he just ate. 

“Oh, look, the maknae traitor decided to show up,” someone said. Taemin didn’t recognize it until Kibum, or Key, sat in front of him, slamming his tray in front of him. 

“Are you talking about yourself again?” Jonghyun said, while Onew just muttered a “oh, no, not this again.”

“Now what, Key?” Taemin asked, lifting his head up to send him a cold stare. 

“You betrayed me. You said I could have your English notes, and you didn’t show up. You know how stupid I looked? You liar.”

“Um, first of all, I overslept. It’s not like I tried to sabotage you one purpose,” Taemin started, “and you drained my phone battery last night and didn’t bother charging it.” 

“Um, it’s your phone, your responsibility. And you promised, either way, so don’t try to get out it.”

“You know what, whatever,” Taemin concluded. He stared at his empty tray, and after a few seconds, he lift his head to face Minho after another fry bounced off his face and fell on the tray. “Minho, if you are going to keep throwing fries, give them to me. Everyone knows that you shouldn’t waste fries.” 

Well, it’s true. 

“No.” Key simply stated, grabbing the french fries from Minho’s hand. “Not unless you state that it’s your fault that I got a zero today.”

“It’s your homework, your responsibility,” Taemin told him. He snatched the French fries the Minho’s hand and stuffed them all in his mouth, almost choking for a second before stealing Key’s water bottle and drowning half of it. 

“You’re disgusting,” Onew said while staring at Taemin wiped his mouth with his hoodie. “All you have done today is steal my notes and steal our food.”

Taemin scoffed at him. “Jinki, you know you love me.” He blew a kiss at him and winked. 

“Ew, no. You’re uglier than Jonghyun here, and that’s saying something.”

“Shut up you piece of trash,” Jonghyun replied. 

Taemin tuned them out after this and decided to be on his phone, thanks to that pocket juice he was glad he didn’t forget to bring. He noticed that he had 27 missing calls, 21 from user KrazyKibum. Not to mention all the text messages; Taemin had a sudden urge to classify all four of them as spam, or trash, as Jonghyun would say. 

About 2 minutes before the bell rang, Taemin got up from his seat to go put his tray up. As soon as he turned around, however, he came face-to-face with none-other than Kim Jongin. 

It wasn’t messy, really. They both have eaten all their food, so it was just the clanging of their trays and the leftover grease from the fries on their skin. Nothing traumatic. 

However, the only thing Taemin noticed was Kai’s eyes peering down on him. 

Taemin froze; he felt like he couldn’t move (not because someone was on top of him.) In reality, this was like the closest anyone from their school has been to Jongin or his other group of friends. 

Kim Jongin was one of the twelve boys in their school known as the “Silent 12” (original, but Taemin couldn’t complain. He certainly didn’t come up with it) or S12 for short. These twelve boys always hang out with each other, and with no one else. They never talked to other people; one time as a dare, Minho tried to convince Chanyeol, one of the boys, to hang out with Taemin and his friends, and Chanyeol was more quiet than the wind. Taemin remembered the conversation as if it were yesterday, (well, considering Minho recorded it.)

Minho: Hey, Chanyeol! Come hang out with us!

Chanyeol: No thanks. (stares at the floor)

Minho: Aw, come on! You can invite your friend…. What’s your name again?

 

Junmyun: Junmyun. (also stares at the floor) No thanks.

Minho: You guys are really quiet. Come on. When are you guys free?

Chanyeol: Um....eh….

Minho: Are you guys free tomorrow?

Chanyeol: I don’t know.

Minho: We can go to the movie theater. Oh, I know! My friend Jinki knows this really great Japanese restaurant that sells fantastic sushi! 

Chanyeol: Uh…. (stares at Junmyun)

Junmyun: (stares back, eyes pleading on what to do)

Minho: Uh.. (not knowing what to do, but Jonghyun owes him ten bucks.) ….Don’t worry, you can tell me afterwards. Talk to you later, guys!

And that was that. 

Taemin felt funny as he remembered the recording. Even though Jongin wasn’t involved, he couldn’t help but think of it. Then he remembered that Jongin was still on top of him. 

It took about ten seconds afterwards for Jongin to realize it, too. 

“OH, UHHHH…..SORRY! SORRY, SORRY, SORRY!” Jongin shouted continuously while hastily getting off of Taemin. He started wiping food crumbs off of Taemin, but when he realized who it was, he quickly stopped and decided to stare at the floor, noticing the heap of trash and trays and proceeded to pick it up in a hurry. 

“Oh, uh, don’t worry, uh,” Taemin said, dumbfounded. He must of looked so stupid, but who cares. He bent down on his knees and helped Jongin pick up the mess. Jongin swatted his hands away and cleaned up the mess himself. 

“I’m sorry, I’m SO sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“Don’t worry. It’s fine, I’m wearing pajamas under these clothes,” Taemin replied, waving his hands in front of his clothes. “You’re Jongin, right?”

“Yeah…” Jongin said, testing the words out his mouth. Without another hesitation, he lifted up the trays with the trash on it and quickly went to the end of the cafeteria to dump it before leaving the cafeteria completely. 

Taemin stood up, not knowing what he did wrong, when he realized that everyone’s eyes were focused on him. Everyone’s. Their conversations ended abruptly to notice what was going on. 

Three boys of the S12, Baekhyun, Zitao, and Jongdae, noticeably left the cafeteria in a hurry as well, presumably to follow Jongin. Taemin’s own group was staring at him all weird. 

Not wanting to waste another second, Jonghyun grabbed Taemin’s hoodie sleeve and pulled him towards the chair where Taemin originally got up. He landed on the chair with a thunk, and he just knew he was going to complain about the pain later. 

“What the -” Taemin started, but was immediately hushed by his group when they started bombarding him with questions.

“WHAT JUST HAPPENED OH MY GOD”

“TAEMIN WHAT IN THE WORLD DID YOU JUST DO”

 

“OOOOOHHHHH MINHO GONNA GET JEALOUS”

“SHUT UP YOU - wait, what did Jonghyun called you again - PIECE OF TRASH!”  
Obviously ignoring them (because why not,) Taemin plugged in his earbuds in his ears and stared around the cafeteria. The chatter quickly returned, and Taemin picked up a few words like “Taemin” “Jongin” and, his personal favorite, “OH MY GOD DID YOU SEE THAT!?”

Never has Taemin been soooo grateful for the lunch bell to ring. He was out there in a flash, not paying attention to his group shouting “HEY WAIT TAEMIN!”

He managed to get to the hallways before it got too crowded but was still speed walking until Kibum catched up to him. 

“BOY, why are you in a hurry? Your face is red like if Jongin proposed his love for you or something.” He trailed off, making a serious face. “Wait, do you want him to?”

“What, eh - no. What is wrong with you today? Gosh, it was just an accident, we both apologized, can we get over it already?! Uh…” Taemin speed walked faster. 

“HEY, WAIT!” Kibum catched up. Again. “We’re just teasing you!”

Well, the teasing didn’t stop all day. One of the Silent 12 had a conversation with a normal person. It was unbelievable. Taemin thought that it was unbelievable that people wouldn’t shut up already. 

To make matters worse, Jongin was also in his last period class, Advanced Dance and Rhythm. (Again, stupid name, but he didn’t come up with it either.) The only thing Taemin needed was to be paired up with him. Not that he hated him or anything, but after today (and not to mention what an incredible dancer Jongin was), Taemin was sure he couldn’t handle being Jongin’s partner. 

Well, luckily, he didn’t have to. Just because most of the students were Korean, Taemin himself, didn’t mean they were in a freaking KDrama. However, he got Zhang Yixing instead. And maybe that was worse. 

They were suppose to be working on their auditions for the upcoming music competition. The auditions were going to be in a week, and everyone had to do solos (no duets.) Today in class, they were supposed to be receiving feedback with their partners. 

Yixing was no help whatsoever. Taemin gave advice like he usually did - don’t extend your arms too much, you almost tripped, blah blah blah - and Yixing made no comment. However, once Taemin went and performed his piece, Yixing didn’t say anything. 

“What do you think,” Taemin asked nervously. 

“Um... I don’t know,” Yixing asked with a puzzled look on his face. “JONGIN HELP ME OUT HERE!”

Oh god. Please don’t do this to me.

Jongin started walking towards them.

Oh, looks like he did.

“What’s wrong, Yixing?” Jongin asked, still wondering why he was called over here. 

Taemin wanted to die. Like, he wanted to call his group of friends and to politely ask them if they could please stab repeatedly until he bled all over the dance floor. Even if he didn’t die, the floor would be too slippery and he wouldn’t have to dance ever again. 

He blamed his friends for his way of thinking nowadays. 

Either way, Taemin was super embarrassed, even more embarrassed than earlier with the cafeteria incident, and he didn’t know why. Maybe it had to do with the aftermath of dealing with Jongin after their “conversation” (if you could really call it that), but he could feel the heat creep up his neck, making him more flustered with each passing millisecond. 

“I don’t see anything wrong with his dance routine, but….. I don’t know. I feel like you can judge him better.” Yixing responded. “Considering how much you boss us,” he added under his breath. 

With that comment, Taemin started getting anxious. What do you mean, you don’t know what’s wrong with my dancing, he thought to himself. You Silent 12 lack more emotion combined than a giant rock. 

Jongin let out a big sigh. “Well, I didn’t see his routine, and he would probably be mad if he had to do it again.” He shrugged his shoulders and turned to stare at Wu Yifan, his own partner who was looking at them all weird, like if he wanted to kill Taemin for being involved with them or something. 

Actually, all day it seems like the S12 wanted to kill them. Taemin didn’t see what was the big deal earlier; one time, Jinki set his car on fire in the parking afterschool last year, and people recorded it for like a minute before going off and dealing with their own lives. Taemin just got in the car like normal.

“No, it’s fine,” Taemin heard himself say. “It’s not that hard,” he added. 

He started the music over and repeated his dance routine all over again. He usually clears his mind when he does dancing, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Jongin throughout the whole thing. He didn’t even noticed he fell until he fell the blood trickle down his nose. 

“OH MY GOD ARE YOU OKAY” he heard someone say, with other voices soon filling in his ears. His eyes sort of became blurry, and once they cleared up, he could make out Jongin reaching out to hold his hands. 

“OH MY GOD I’M SO SORRY I KNEW I SHOULDN’T HAVE ASKED YOU TO-”

“Jongin, stop exaggerating. You’re acting like you killed him or something. Which I might,” Yixing said, his voice trailing off in the end so that Taemin wouldn’t hear. Taemin still heard it though, and he started to wonder why Yixing was starting to hate him so much. 

The teacher came over through the clustering group of students around them, kneeling in front of Taemin next to Jongin. She told Jongin if he was okay with taking Taemin to the nurse, in which he just answered with a shaky nod. 

The walk to the nurse was a quiet one. Jongin always maintained two steps behind him, in which Taemin just focused on keeping his hand over his face in order to prevent more blood dripping on the floor. 

Hey, at least part of his wish came true. There was blood on the floor, and he heard the teacher telling the class enough dancing for the day when he was leaving the classroom. Now if only he could die now. 

Right when they were getting closer to their destination, Taemin came to a sudden halt, making Jongin crash into him. He turned around to face him, and as soon as more apologies were about to come out of Jongin’s mouth, Taemin slammed his free hand onto it. 

“No. I don’t want to hear any more sorry's from you today. And, no, don’t apologize for that, either. Nothing today has been your fault, but if you say sorry one more time and give me a headache, it will be.”

Jongin’s eyes went wide while these words were coming out of Taemin’s mouth, and he couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty. This quiet guy has said more words to Taemin than the S12 have said to the entire school, and Taemin here was trying to shut him up. He may call his friends jerks, but he realized that he wasn’t any better. 

He slowly took his hand away from Jongin’s mouth. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just…..never mind. Hey, just drop me off here,” Taemin said. 

Jongin still wouldn’t move a muscle, leaving Taemin not knowing what to do. Without another word, he turned around again and marched his way down to the nurse’s office by himself. 

“HEY, WAIT UP!” Jongin shouted, running to catch up with Taemin. All Taemin did was pick up his pace, making the boy behind him try to run even faster. 

Taemin slowed down, but moved out of the way to make sure Jongin wouldn’t crash into him again. Jongin managed to reach up to Taemin, and they finished the rest of the journey walking side by side.

\----

The warm, flutter-like breeze hit Taemin’s face as he exited the school. He was planning on heading home and doing nothing like he usually does, but Jonghyun had other plans. 

“Let’s all go to the field after school. I could use an excuse to eat more food.”

“Considering Minho wasted all the fries during lunch, I don’t see why you would use this excuse.” Taemin ignored his friends behind him and walked down the steps to walk home. 

“Hey, Taemin, hold up!” Jonghyun pulled Taemin’s arm, which made him almost lose his footing on the steps. “Oops. Wouldn’t want another nosebleed, again, do we.”

“Only if he wants to see his boyfriend again,” Onew piped up. “I wonder when you’ll ask him out.

“I wonder when Jonghyun would ask Kibum out,” Taemin said, voice quiet so that the two mentioned wouldn’t hear. 

Jonghyun, luckily, didn’t, but Onew did. This caused him to raise up his eyebrows and send a look at Kibum, wondering why the heck he hasn’t this from Jonghyun. 

Jonghyun, unnoticed, kept tugging Taemin’s arm. “Please please please please please please please do this. For me?” He dramatically fluttered his eyelashes towards Taemin, who made a disgusted face and kept trying to make Jonghyun go away.

It didn’t work, so Taemin gave up, letting out a huge sigh. “Fine. But I have to make a stop at my house, first. I’m starving.”

“When are you not hungry?”

 

“Shut up.”

Taemin wasn’t really hungry, but he knew from experience that if he doesn’t show up, they would all show up at his house and knock down his door like the crazy people they are. Last time, they broke the doorknob, and it took Taemin half an hour to convince his parents that it wasn’t, in fact, a murderer, but they were going to make him into one. 

Instead of driving home, he decided to just walk. He took his time walking home, glad that the streets were empty; it was sort of creeping him out, and he wondered maybe someone was following him. 

He turned around, all cliche-like, and there was Onew, following him home. 

Onew stopped in his tracks and shrugged his shoulders. “What?” he called out.

“What the heck are you doing?!”

“Following you home, stupid,” Onew simply said. He ran up to reach Taemin and threw him a light punch. “You were going to ditch us, weren’t you?”

“No. I have a stack of Hershey bars under my bed, and I was going to eat them.” 

“Uh huh. Sure. And Jonghyun is going to ask out Kibum today.”

“WAIT HE IS? WHY DIDN’T HE TELL ME?” Taemin shrieked, alway planning how to murder Jonghyun after his wedding. 

“AH HA! I KNEW IT!” Onew yelled. He starting jumping up and down and clapping his hands together. After he calmed down (and approximately ten seconds of Taemin with a confused look on his face), he stated that he overheard Taemin earlier.

“HOLD UP. WHAT?” Taemin shrieked again.

“You said something of when Jonghyun was going to ask out Kibum. I overheard you.” Onew had a big, gleeful smile on his face. “Although it was obvious, he told me he had a crush on a girl. “

“Well, he lied. He’s obviously gay.”

“So are you,” Onew answered. 

Taemin shrugged. He didn’t really about stuff like that, but considering how stupid the whole wide world was, he really doubted that he would find a significant other. 

“Wait you are?!”

“Onew, shut up. If you think I’m going to hit on you or something, the answer is no because you are uglier than all the kids at school combined.”

“Aren’t you mad,” Onew said. He let out a sigh of relief when they reached Taemin’s house. “You got five minutes to eat what you want.”

“Uh, don’t tell me what to do,” Taemin growled at him. “Or you get any of my candy.”

“Wait you weren’t lying about that?”

 

Taemin ignored him as he opened the door to his house, upset that he won’t be able to get sleep for half an hour. As promised, he went to his room to get the box of chocolate bars under his bed. He stuffed as much as could into his backpack, which emptied out half of the box. He went to the kitchen and found an empty knapsack, so he filled it with soda and chips that he raided as well. 

Carrying both bags outside, Taemin shoved them up to Onew’s face. “Here. You carry them.”

Onew accepted them without a grudge, but not before he stole a Hershey bar and stuffed it into his mouth. Taemin could barely hear his muffled “thank you”. 

“Actually, I have to go pick up something real quick. You can go without me.” 

“Are you sure you aren’t going to ditch us,” Onew said. 

“I would ditch you guys every chance I get, but you idiots would make me look back.”

“Nice to see that you care about us.”

“Shut up, Jinki.”

Taemin pretended to walk the opposite way, and as soon as he couldn’t see Onew anymore, who happily made his way back to school, Taemin turned around and followed Onew, making sure he wouldn’t hear him. 

He wasn’t lying when he said he had to pick up something; he was going to get Starburst from his car. Which happened to be in the school. 

This is payback for earlier, he thought to himself. 

He made the whole trip to school without Onew ever finding out. As he made his way into the parking lot, he could see Onew holding up the bags with junk food and everyone around him starting to grab some food. 

Taemin was glad he had Starburst in his car; he knew that everyone would take everything. 

He reached into his pockets to pull out his keys, which were tangled with his earbuds. He pulled them out and started untangling him when he saw the shadow behind him. 

He jerked his elbow behind him, but the stranger caught it. Taemin struggled to turn around has the mystery figure wrapped his other arm around Taemin’s neck. He couldn’t scream help as he was being choked to death. All because he wanted freaking Starburst. 

As he was dying (yes, that’s what he was calling it), Taemin’s head was filling with violent thoughts. All he could think of was that he wanted this person to die, like to turn into black dust and be swept across the wind. 

This is just what happened when Taemin clutched the guy’s arm even harder.

The spot where Taemin digged his nails into turned to dust first, quickly spreading to rest of the guys body. Taemin could finally breath again, and he stared at the ground in which the guy’s dark hoodie was piled on the ground.

It took Taemin a few seconds to realize what was happening. His breathing went bad again, not because some murder was choking him, but because he realized that he just murdered someone. 

How?

“HELP ME! SOMEONE HELP ME!” Taemin yelled, his hands wrapped around his own neck to make sure no one else tried to kill him. “HEEEELLLLLP!” He fell on the floor and started sobbing uncontrollably, hands going up to his eyes. 

“TAEMIN!” He recognized the voice as Jongin’s, but he made no movement towards the noise. 

Suddenly, Jongin appeared in front of him, almost as if he teleported there. “Hey, Taemin, it’s okay. Breath.” 

Taemin slowed his sobs a little and stared at Jongin all teary-eyed. “What- what-” he said slowly, almost as if he were whispering. “What’s going on?”

As his eyes became less blurry, he noticed that Jongin wasn’t the only one there, but various other members of the Silent 12 were there, too. They all had shocked looks on their faces and were whispering among themselves. 

“You.. you have….” Jongin turned around to face Junmyun and Yifan, who had stern looks on their faces. They both uttered out a “No” at the same time. 

“Uh, whatever you guys say to convince him otherwise, it won’t work,” Jongdae said, putting himself between Yifan and Jongin. 

Jongin turned his head around again to face back at Taemin. He said the next words out slowly and quietly so that only Taemin could understand him.

“You have powers, Taemin. And you're not suppose to have them. Only we can.”

\-----

Taemin woke up, startled from the weird dream he had. I mean, really? Turn someone into dust as soon as you think of it? Not to mention that the Silent 12 wouldn’t even talk to people in their dreams. 

As his eyes became less foggy, Taemin turned to stare his room. The only problem was that he wasn’t in his room. He was in one of those rooms that they have in insane asylums, excepted the room wasn’t padded at all. He was on a simple but long, comfy white bed, and he had his normal clothes on. Well, what he had underneath his clothes today, which were his stupid pajamas. He was barefoot, though, and he looked around the bed to see if he could find them. Sadly, he didn't.

At least I’m not naked, he thought to himself. But I may be kidnapped. 

It all made sense now. The almost-murderer dude knocked Taemin out, and he imagined all of the rest. 

It was good that the room resembled an insane asylum, because that is what Taemin felt right now.

He paid more closely attention to the room around him. The room consisted of some furniture and a white door; there wasn’’t any windows, though. There was a bed, which he was on, a small, black dresser next to it, a larger dresser near the white door, and a mirror hanging on the opposite side of the room. 

He lept off the bed and headed towards the mirror to look at his reflection. His face was a mess; his cheeks and eyes were all puffy and swollen-like. His eyes were also filled with dry tears, and their were black bags underneath them as well. 

He was so glad he was late to school today causing him to forget his makeup. He would look like a bigger mess. 

He stared at himself in the mirror for a while until he heard the door open. Startled, Taemin jumped back and accidentally hit himself at the wall, causing him to wince and rub his back. 

He lifted his head up a little bit, just enough to get a clear picture of who entered the room. He was surprised to see Minseok from school to be hanging out in the doorway. However, it didn’t look like he wanted to be there; he still had his hand on the doorknob, like he was going to leave any second now, and the look on his face was a more murderous look than usual. He looked quite bored as well. 

Hold up a second. Minseok kidnapped him? No, that was stupid. 

Minseok opened his mouth before Taemin could. “We decided that we have to explain, I guess, even though most of us know that you would think of it as a dream.” He stared down at his feet and shuffled around a bit, not knowing what else to say. “Come into the central room when you’re ready. We’ll wait.” He didn’t even give him time to speak before he left the door. 

Taemin just stood there, speechless. What did Minseok mean that they had to explain? What dream was he talking about? The one Taemin thought was impossible, even as a dream? And what did he mean by we? 

No.

However, he knew he was going to grow restless, and he soon found himself exiting the room five minutes later. He didn’t knew that he would be face-to-face with Jongin. 

Stupid Jongin. What does he keep running into him everywhere? He had never crossed paths with the S12 until today, which all of a sudden came to a huge smack in the face. All because Taemin wanted to put his tray away 5 minutes earlier. 

Jongin’s voice soon took him out of his thoughts. “Hey. You okay?”

Taemin had no idea how to respond. Was he okay? He has no idea what was going on, so he was going to say no. 

“I… I don’t know.”

 

“Well, um,” he kept shifting his weight between his feet. “I...could take you to the room if you want?”

“Uh….okay?” 

Jongin led him the way, and Taemin took a good look at Jongin. He had a black, unbuttoned long-sleeve dress shirt and tight black pants with these weird shoes. His brown hair looked to be bed head, but he probably tousled it up a bit. He had to admit, Jongin looked good, especially with his tanned skin and beautiful eyes that were peering at him…

Oops. He got caught.

Embarrassed, he whipped his head around to stare at his surroundings. Taemin couldn’t help but notice how big the place was. And it was all so….modern-looking, was one way you could say it. 

The place felt like a maze. All the wall were black, but they seemed to be glowing. He didn’t see any windows anywhere, just like in his room. He was pretty sure they were underground. 

It took about 5 minutes for them too to reach their destination. The “central room” (whatever Minseok called it) was like a huge room, but there wasn’t much: a couple of couches, a black carpet, a TV stand with what appeared to contain every console in the universe. 

It wasn’t the materials in the room that Taemin noticed, it was that every single S12 member was present. Everyone. Baekhyun, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo, Junmyun, Sehun, Zitao, Yifan, Luhan, Yixing, Jongdae and Minseok. Not to mention Jongin next to him. 

Speaking of Jongin, he seemed to be nervous about this whole ordeal. He kep shifting his weight like earlier, and kept throwing nervous glances to Taemin, as if he knew what to do.

Taemin had no idea what to do. 

“Hey guys. Uh, Taemin’s here.”

Everyone turned their attention to them too, and Taemin started to get embarrassed. 

Junmyun got out of his seat and clapped his hands together. “Okay, now that we are all here….. uh, how do I start……”

“You fainted when Kai here said you had powers, which was hilarious,” said Kyungsoo. 

Wait, Kai? 

Jongdae threw a punch at Kyungsoo. “He doesn't know that, stupid?” he whispered. 

“Duh, cause he fainted!”

“You guys are all acting so weird today,” said Sehun.

“Hm, I wonder why? Maybe it's because this dude just turned someone into dust in front of our eyes!”

“Luhan shut up!”

“Uh, who’s Kai?” Taemin piped in into their somewhat personal conversation. They forgot that someone was there.

“It's Jongin, stupid,” Jongdae said, pointing at him. “It's kind of hard to explain.” 

“We’re not from here,” Minseok interrupted. “Like, from this planet.”

As soon as he heard planet, Taemin wanted to laugh. Obviously, he was in coma or something. Or maybe he is still oversleeping.

“Uh, what?”

Junmyun let out a large sigh. “Us 12 are from EXO planet, outside this galaxy. I am approximately 13,648 years old.”

“That’s a lot of cake,” Jongin added.

“Anyway,” Junmyun continued. “We came here to this planet about 8,000 years ago.”

“Actually, it was 8,132 years ago. 8,133 next month.”

“Baekhyun, shut up.”

“You shut up, D.O.”

“Can everyone shut up? Trying to explain to a newbie, here.” Junmyun cleared his throat. “In our planet, we are giving a unique, single name. Mine is Suho.”

“You literally just told him we are old aliens just to explain the single name?” Yifan shouted at him.

“Not dealing with you today, Kris.”

“The problem, here,” Luhan said, “is that those from EXO planet origin have powers. Naturally, we do.” He gestured to everyone around him and stopped at Taemin. “The problem is, you aren't, so how did you do what you did earlier?”

“He may be from EXO planet. Why don't you ask him?” Minseok jumped off his seat and pulled Taemin up with one hand. “Are you?”

“I have no idea what’s going on.” Taemin said, his voice squeaking like a timid mouse.

Minseok let go of Taemin, who fell on the floor with a thud. “Should have seen it coming.”

“Maybe he is, but has no memory of it,” Baekhyun suggested. “Lay, do you think we can test him or something? You said our genetics are different than humans.”

“I'll need some time though,” Yixing (or Lay, Taemin guesses) said. “We have the equipment here, but I'm using some of the machines to contact the planet again.”

“That never works, Lay,” Zitao said. “You're just wasting your time.”

“It might, though. I did some research and I discovered that maybe we-”

“That's what you said last time.”

“It's called progress, Tao. Similar to character development, which is something you never achieved-”

“If time is what you guys what, you know you can control it, Tao.” Minseok interrupted.

Yixing and Zi(Tao) both answered him at the same time. “Not now, Xiumin.”

Taemin couldn't take all this craziness anymore. He slumped down against the wall, putting his hands on his blond hair.

He felt someone's hand on his hair as well. It was (surprise surprise) Jongin (or Kai, he assumes.)

Kai had a tender touch to him. He just sat there in front of Taemin, messing with his hair. It was almost soothing.

“Sorry it's a lot to handle with. You must think we're crazy.”

“I killed someone with my own two hands, Kai. I pretty sure I'm crazy.”

Kai smirked at him. “I prefer it when you say Kai instead of Jongin.”

“What, you don't like your fake name?”

“It's not that.” Kai stopped ruffling Taemin’s hair and turned his attention to the others, who were still arguing about who-knows-what. “It's just…only the S12 calls me Kai. I'm so sick of hearing Jongin every now and then.”

“I hate the name Taemin. It sounds stupid.”

“I like Taemin. It’s cute and dangerous.”

All Taemin could do was laugh. “You make me sound like a killer teddy bear or something.”

“You look like like one.”

“That's comforting. But after today’s events… I guess I could use all the comfort I could get.”

“Oh, that's what I've been trying to remember!” Kai got up from his spot on the floor and walked towards the group. “Guys, we need to find out that hooded guy was!”

Everyone snapped their head towards guys, their eyes popping wide. Shoot! How could they forget that?!

“I thought he was turned into dust,” Chanyeol reminded him.

“Guys, you don't think…”

“Lay, not now.” Yifan/Kris went up and left somewhere. Once again, Taemin had no idea what was happening.

“What's wrong,” Taemin asked Kai.

“It's… confidential. I'm sorry.”

You literally told me you guys are ancient aliens that have superpowers and that's confidential?! Taemin thought. However, he refused to press on for more details, assuming it was personal.

Kai must have seen the let-down look on his face because he spoke again. “Not that I don't mind telling you, but it's kind of a dark thing in our past, and we sort of decide things as a group.”

“No, I should have asked.” Trying to divert the subject, he asked something else that was on his mind. “Where are we, by the way?”

“Underground Level 5,” Kai responded.

Taemin blinked his eyes. What.

“Our house, basically,” Kai continued. “We have 2 floors above ground, and twenty levels under.”

“Twenty?!” Taemin shrieked, letting the others hear him.

“Dude, did you tell him about the levels,” Chanyeol questioned.

“No,” Kai lied.

“What do you need all those levels for,” Taemin asked, his voice hinted with confusion.

“Uh…” Lay started.

Taemin thought he would finish it, instead. “Let me guess. It's confidential.”

“Wow, you are so smart,” Kris said sarcastically. Taemin had no idea that he came back, except this time he had a few files in his hands. “But yeah, actually. Here, Lay. This is for you.”

Taemin got a jump scare when he heard a weird chime go through the room. Everyone seemed normal, though.

“Oh, that's pizza.” Kai said. One second he was there, but by the next he was gone, almost as if he had teleported or something.

Why did you leave me, Taemin thought to himself. He knew that these people hated him with all their guts.

Wait, do they have guts? Didn't Baekhyun say something about them having different genetics to humans? Did that apply to anatomy as well?

Suddenly, Kai appeared in front of him again. How fast was Kai, anyway? Especially after him saying there were like 20 levels or something. Not even an elevator was that fast.

Kai had a big smile on his face (who wouldn't when pizza was involved), and he wouldn't stop bouncing around. Somehow, the pizza boxes didn't fall, and must have had 8 boxes in his arms.

“Guys, stop being annoying and hurry up! I'm not washing the dishes tonight!” 

“What are you, the maknae,” Taemin sarcastically said.

“2nd. Sehun’s the youngest,” he said, as a matter of fact.

“And why does that matter?” Sehun said. “Are you mad cause you don't get away with being a playboy?”

“Don't tell him that!” Kai whisper-shouted, the words passing through his gritted teeth.

All Taemin could do was shrug. He just wanted to go home, eating Chinese food (it would probably get Kris, Tao, Lu Han, and Lay mad lol), and maybe play video games with his friends-

Oh no. He ditched them. Unintentionally, but still. And he knows what happens when he does that. 

“Uh, guys, sorry for interrupting, but I got to go.”

“Go?” Kai whispered. “Don't you want to stay with us?”

You guys could possibly care less about me, he thought, but knowing it's bit cruel, he added, “My family and friends must be worried about me.”

“Oh, about that,” Kris spoke. “None of your friends saw what happened, just us but they saw you afterwards when you were unconscious. We told them you fainted and were taking you home so that they can continue… whatever they were doing.” 

Weird. His friends usually weren't like that. One time Jinki fell down the stairs at school, and they all ditched class to go see him at the hospital. Sometimes it's more serious, like when Minho got pneumonia, but they have always been there for him.

It was probably Kyungsoo’s face, now that he thought off it. His friends, whatever jokes they might make, are sort of scared of the S12. Still, though, they would have contacted him or something.

His phone! And his clothes and other stuff! Where were they?

“Uh..” he started. “Where's my phone and stuff?”

“You go get it, Kai,” said Jongdae. “You can get there quicker.”

“You guys are super lazy. Why don't you get it?”

“You're the one that took off his clothes!”

Taemin choked for the second time that day. And he wasn't the only, he realized, as he noticed a weird noise coming off of Kai’s mouth as well.

“Uh, Chen, you could have worded that better.”

“Only you would know, Suho, considering you Kris.”

“We have been in a relationship for two months. Get over it.”

Chen wouldn't let it drop. “Two months since you told us,” he lastly muttered.

This, here l, was the only thing Taemin could understand that day. It was pretty obvious that Kris and Suho were a thing at school; Taemin tend to have a knack for those things.

For example, it was pretty obvious that Luhan and Sehun had feelings for each other, but they haven't admitted it. Also, by the way Baekhyun and Chanyeol hanged out with each other, they're going to start dating sooner or later.

Before Taemin could check out anyone else, though, Kai handed the pizza boxes to Xiumin and grabbed Taemin’s hand to lead the way.

Taemin was right about Kai’s hand; it was smooth and tender, with a creamy feel and a few calluses here and there. How could people, however old they are, have hands this great?

While Taemin was kept wondering about Kai’s hands, he didn't notice that they were at the ground level of the house. Didn't Kai said they were on level 5 underground? How did they get there so fast? Taemin didn't even remember using stairs or an elevator.

They were in a normal-sized living room (meaning it can't fit 12 people) with cream-colored walls and tons of windows. Basically, the opposite of underground.

The living room led way to a hallway, the foyer, and a spacious kitchen. Taemin noticed a familiar set of clothes on the long sofa. When he walked closer to them, he realized that those were his sneakers, hoodie and sweatpants.

He snatched his sweatpants from the pile and put them on first, the hoodie following soon after. When he got to his shoes, he sat on the floor to put them on (because he knows how hard putting shoes on without socks are), unaware that Kai was peering down on him.

Taemin looked up after he was done and found Kai staring at him. Gosh, how many times were they going to find the other like this?

“What,” Taemin said coldly. He didn't mean to sound harsh, but he was just tired of everything he has had to deal with today. He keeps forgetting that he just got kidnapped, for crying out loud.

Kai had that hurt look on his face again. He stumbled out a “nothing” before walking towards the kitchen. He came back with Taemin’s phone and keys. 

“Here.” He shoved them into Taemin's hands and said, “Your friends said to call them when you wake up.”

Without another hesitation, Taemin turned on his phone, noticing it was 8 PM (Wow, I have been out for 4 hours). He went to his contacts, noticing another huge set of missed calls. He clicked on the most recent one, which was an hour ago, and clicked the call button.

They picked up the phone on the 2nd ring. “Hey, is Taemin awake?” the voice belonging to Minho.

“Yeah, I’m up,” he replied. “What's up with you?”

“TAEMIN YOU’RE AWAKE!!! OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH!!” Minho said something muffled, in which Taemin assumed he covered the phone to talk with whoever was with him.

His voice became clear a few seconds later. “WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?! WHY DIDN’T YOU CALL US?! YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED WE HAVE BEEN?!” 

Taemin put his phone down on the ground, knowing their venting was probably going to take a minute. Kai stared at him with a quizzed look on his face, in which Taemin mouthed to him, “They’re peppering me with questions. It might take a while.”

“They have been worried. We should have called them sooner.”

“No, it's fine. They get like this all the time. I'm used to it.” With that, he picked his phone back up again, and sure enough, Minho was almost done.

“Come on, Taemin. Answer me.”

“What lie did you guys tell them,” Taemin whispered to Kai. 

He shrugged his shoulders. “We just said you fainted and didn’t know. Tell that whatever they will believe.” 

“Uh, I was dehydrated,” Taemin replied to Minho. 

“Dehydrated?” He pondered for a minute. “Oh, that’s why you grabbed soda for later, didn’t you?”

Taemin mentally let out a sigh of relief. He had no idea why Minho didn’t catch his lie, but whatever. It’s not like he was complaining. 

After answering all their extensive list of questions - yes, he felt better, yes, they were taking good care of him, no, I already told you Kai’s not my boyfriend - they agreed to pick him up right up, ignoring Taemin’s pleas that “he could just walk home.”

 

Kai had a look of disbelief when Taemin hanged up. “Last time you walked outside, you almost got killed.”

“Do you have to keep reminding me of that?” He didn’t want to remind Kai again that he was the one who did the killing. 

Oh, no. What was he going to do about his power? If you could call something that deadly a power. “Kai, what if I accidentally kill someone?”

Kai couldn't help but laugh, which led Taemin to wonder what made his question ridiculous.

“Kai, I'm serious.”

“I know. That’s what makes it funny.”

“I don’t get it.” 

In all seriousness, Kai stopped laughing and wiped his face with the back of his hands to remove his tears. “I was wondering when you were going to ask. You asked for your phone before asking how this ‘power’ was going to affect you. Man, this generation really is obsess with them.”

Yeah, and the generation before us invented it, he thought to himself.

“Anyway, to answer your question,” Kai paused for a second, moving his hands before just dropping them to his sides. “To be honest, we don’t know.”

“Wait, so…”

“Just don’t touch anyone,” Kai finished. 

Easier said than done. 

It didn't even take five minutes before his friends came to pick him up.

They didn't even bother calling to let them know they were here; Key just walked in through the unlocked front door to find Kai and Taemin eating pizza.

“Well you certainly look sick.”

Kai turned away, probably out of embarrassment, while Taemin just muttered out, “Did you step on it on every red light?”

“Yeah, actually. Sorry to cut your date short, but you mom as been screaming at us nonstop these past couple of hours.”

Kai spewed out his soda when Key said boyfriend, while Taemin smacked his head when he realized he forgot to call his parents. How do you forget to call your parents.

Mentally he blamed Kai for all the distractions.

Taemin stuffed the rest of his pizza slice in his mouth and went to place the ceramic plate in the sink. “Come on, Key, let’s go.”

“Wait!” Kai exclaimed, dropping his soda on the ground. It was still half-full, so it left a soda puddle on the ground.

Taemin raised his eyebrows, wondering he forgot something. However, instead, Kai grabbed Taemin's phone and fiddle with it for a minute or so. When he gave it back to him, Taemin could see that Kai added his phone number to his contacts.

“Text me when you get the chance,” Kai said.

Key was bursting to say something about this exchanged but didn't get a chance to tease Taemin about it, considering how Taemin just mumbled out an “okay” before pushing Key out the door.

He ignored everyone outside, who asked him the same questions again as if he didn't just answer them a few minutes ago. He didn't bother correcting Key who kept introducing Kai as his boyfriend.

When Taemin got into Onew’s car with everyone still chattering about the weird events of today, Taemin found himself staring at the house, wondering when he will see Kai again.


	2. Think About Something Else

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai's point of view this time. Some other's person for a while at the end. No spoilers. :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promised on Thursday. I actually have an idea for a Kaisoo fanfic, but I'm still working on it. And another Taekai as well. Sorry if it's shorter.

“Kai, you need to clean that up, you know.”

“Shut up, Suho. I don't want to deal with you right now.”

Kai hasn't move a muscle every since Taemin had left. He may have been thousands of years old, but for the first time in his life he felt…. bored.

“Hey Kai,” Suho asked him. Kai decided to ignore Suho and teleported to his room.

It didn't take long for Suho to find out where he was. He opened the door to his room and said, “You know I hate it when you do that.”

“Do what?”

“Don't play dumb with me, lovesick boy.”

“Who's lovesick? Last time I checked, I didn't have a boyfriend.”

“You sleep with people, you don't date them.”

“Okay? Do I care?”

Suho let out a sigh, and Kai knew where this was going. Suho was going to bring up the whole “don't be afraid of loving someone” spiel. Whatever.

“Kai, you should know that-”

“GUYS! Do you want more pizza!” It was D.O, standing there at the hallway entrance with a box of pizza in his hand.

“Kris threatened to throw it away, but once I told him that we would be getting chicken instead, he caved in. Hey, where’s that Taemin dude?”

“He-”

“He left,” Kai interrupted. “He had to go to his friends and family.”

D.O moved towards the entrance to Kai's room. “His friends and family, huh.” D.O grin went down. “At least he can do that.”

Thanks, D.O, I totally needed that, Kai thought, already getting homesick. (Considering how old they are, you would think they would be used to it by now.)

Baekhyun, thankfully, didn't get the memo of what was going on in Kai’s room, so when he entered the hallway and saw D.O standing at the doorway, he started yelling for Kyungsoo to stop stealing his stuff.

“What stuff?! I only touched your Apple Air thingie. The scratches were all Chanyeol, though-”

“What?! You left marks on it?! How could you?”

Wow, considering how big the place is, why do I keep being stuck with them?

Kai had to teleport the heck out of there again. Seriously, what was wrong with these people? He would much rather hang out with Taemin.

Taemin….

Not now.

This time, he teleported to the forest next to the park near the high school. Knowing it would take a little longer for his fake-mom to find him, he decided to find his hidden underground shelter and sleep there.

Kai discovered it like around 50 years ago; it looked stable enough to survive a nuclear blast or something, not that Kai knew much about weapons. Why use weapons when they could burn their enemies with their fire?

Well, Chanyeol could, because that was his power. Kai only had teleportation, which wasn't useful in battle, but the good thing was that he could transport people as well. Like with Taemin earlier.

I thought I said I would stop thinking about him.

Well, he had to admit, that was pretty funny. Kai had teleported in front of Taemin and with him as well. Taemin didn't seem to notice. It was like he was in his own little world.

How much thinking did that boy do? Taemin always seemed to be lost in thought of something.

Could he…

No. That was wishful thinking.

All that “don't think about Taemin” mantras have been thrown into the trash. Kai started to ask himself when Taemin would call him. Or text him. Or send him an email. Or-

This was so annoying.

Kai let out a big sigh to himself in the shelter and got up. There was no way he was going to be able to fall asleep tonight.

He stayed there for a while, thinking to himself in the dark for about half an hour. Satisfied that Suho hasn't discovered his hiding place for yet another day, Kai thought it would be okay to teleport back home to his room.

Kai had many hiding places, in fact. His favorite one was actually part of their house, but no one knew about it.

Ha. And they thought they knew him all too well. 

From his room in Level 9, Kai could hear no voices of the others, like he usually couldn't. He thought maybe he should have told Taemin that they each had their own level. Technically, it was true.

He turned his phone back on and saw a 22-minute-late text from Lay saying: meeting room now. Kris says he had something to say to us about today. IDK but he will be mad if you don't go

Kai replied back. lol just saw this but do I have to come

It took Yixing about a minute, in which Kai assumed that Lay was pissed off. What took u so long

I was asleep

At 9 pm?

You know, this is the time when most students go to sleep. 

Not high school students, Kai.

True. 

You're missing the point. COME HERE NOW

Kai really didn't feel like it. Your not my mom, he texted.

Lay wasn't dealing with him today. *You’re. And BTW do you want me to get her?

Not Suho. I'll be there in 5.

Better be 5 seconds instead of minutes.

Kai had no choice but to go to their meeting room in Level 18. He found himself right in the middle of a heated debate.

“BAEKHYUN, WE ARE NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO GO BACK. GET OVER IT.”

“NO ONE ASKED YOU TAO. YOU DON’T GET TO DECIDE FOR US.”

“Guys, stop shouting, please,” Sehun cried, hands covering his eyes. “You guys always have the same conversation.”

“JUST BECAUSE SOME WEIRD KID KILLED SOMEONE WITH HIS BARE HANDS DOESN’T MAKE IT ENOUGH PROOF!”

“Actually, I found something that will change you guys mind-”

“Lay, no.”

“No, Kris, I'm tired of you always thinking you’re right when you aren’t.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, where's this definite proof again?!”

“THAT WEIRD KID SHOULDN’T BE ABLE TO DO THAT. THIS MIGHT LEAD US TO SOMETHING!!”

“Guys, Kai’s back.”

The intense chaos came to a stop; not even Suho could make it this quiet. But he did destroy the silence about 6 seconds later.

“Where,” he started slowly, “were you?”

“Sleeping.”

“You do realize that we MIGHT HAVE ONE OF THEM ON OUR TAILS AGAIN?!”

“Suho, sweetie calm down,” Kris said, putting his hands around him.

His sweetness was only to Suho, though, as he gave Kai a stern look.

Kai squirmed a little. He didn't like being the center of attention in their group. Whenever it happened, he just teleported the heck out of there. However, he was in deep water right now, and he knew he had no way out of this one.

He sent a pleading look to D.O. Help me. 

D.O spoke before Kris could. “They are arguing about the same thing again.”

“Which is not going to be able to work,” Kris claimed. “You’re just wasting time, Lay.”

“But there’s something new I discovered earlier-”

“How many times do I have to say this?! It's NOT going to work. It never does and it never will. Wishful thinking would get you nowhere.”

“Kris, you should see it.”

Everyone was surprised at Sehun speaking. He tends to be the quieter one in their group, and usually when he had an opinion, he would tell Luhan to tell them, unless he was trying to shut them up.

No one was going to treat him harshly. “Show him what, Sehun?” Suho asked. 

“Gosh, we would get around more if you guys just ask people, you know,” Xiumin said quietly.

Lay let out a groan. “Thank you, Xiumin. Everyone listens to you.” He ruffled around in his bag for something, while muttering to himself “no one listens to me.”

Kai felt bad for bit. Lay really misses EXO planet back home, and whenever he tried to do work to try to contact it again, he always got laughed at. 

It was a few decades ago when they were living in their house in France. Kai remembered looking for Lay if he wanted ice cream when he found him locked in his closet crying. Earlier that day, Lay found a document about the D.A.S. group, and Kris had smacked him. Of course, Kris apologized profusely after he did, but Lay was having none of it.

It’s still a touchy subject to bring up with Lay, but if you mention it to Kris, he runs away for a few days. Last time this happened it was 8 months ago. Oh course, Suho knows where Kris runs off to, but he hasn't told anyone.

Kai did everything in his power to cheer up Lay that day. He teleported him to one of his secret hangouts and they spent the entire day next to each on the ground cuddled in blankets watching Lay’s favorite shows. Of course, he stayed miserable but felt better at the end.

It took Lay about a week to speak to Kris again, while Kai didn't talk to anyone in their group for a month.

Kai doesn't understand why some of his friends are against contacting EXO again. Well, he does know, he just wonders if they are ever going to forgive themselves. 

Not that Kai has forgiven himself.

Back to the present, Lay took out what seemed to be a long, black robe-like hoodie. Hey it actually looks similar to-

No. Not today. Please.

“This is the hoodie of the guy who tried to kill Taemin.”

Everyone was shocked to see the hoodie. It couldn't be. When they came to this planet, they didn't bring their hoodies at all, just the funky clothes they were wearing. They remember burning the hoodies.

It had to be someone else’s. But who does it belong to?!

“That’s….. that's the robe,” Chen said, pointing the obvious.

“Nah, Chen,” Baekhyun said. “It's a dress.” He turned to Lay and said, “Lay, where did you get this?”

“It's the robe the guy killing Taemin was wearing. We didn't notice it since we were so far away.” He draped the robe over the table. “We forgot about it during the aftermath chaos, so I went back and grabbed it.”

Kai could not believe that he slept for half an hour while Lay knew this.

“Wait, so you went out alone knowing this!”

“Wait, Suho, this might not even be the robe,” Kris said. “How do you not know that it isn't just a regular robe?”

“I knew you would disapprove it,” Lay said, disappointed. “But I analyzed it. It's not made up of earthen elements. The elements match the ones from the clothes we were wearing when we came-”

“Lay.” Everyone turned to stare at Kris. “Destroy it.” He turned to Chanyeol. “Use your flame.”

Kai was taken aback by Kris’ words. Burn it?! What was wrong with him?!

“No.”

“No?!”

“No.”

Kris and Lay stood staring at each other’s eyes for a few seconds, eyebrows furrowed. They didn't break eye contact for a minute until Suho said “Kris” the same time Kai said “Lay.”

“I quit.”

Quit?

“What do you mean, quit?” Luhan asked him.

“Quit as in I’m leaving.” Lay stuffed the robe into his bag, got up from his seat and walked to the door.

“You can't leave!” yelled Tao. “Xiumin, freeze him or something!”

“If you guys touch me,” Lay warned them, “I swear to God, I may be a healer, but that's the opposite of what I'll do you.” With that, Lay left the room. 

The room stayed quiet after that. No one knew who to blame. Except Sehun.

“Thanks Kris. That was some excellent support right there.” 

“At least I give support.”

“What does that mean?!” exclaimed Sehun.

When Sehun screams, you know stuff just got real.

While Suho, Kris, Sehun, Luhan and Tao were arguing to each other, some of the other ones were discussing what to do while the rest went to look for Lay.

Kai was the only one who knew where Lay would be, so he teleported there. 

Lay was in his level (14) throwing his clothes in a bag. He then proceeded to open a secret compartment in his closet, in which he attached a rod-like silver object hanging from his necklace into a barely noticeable hole in the wall.

The tiny compartment was the size of   
Kai’s locker at school, and it contained a shoe-sized box, some binders and office files, and their was a single outfit hanging on the rod in it - the clothes Lay wore that day they left EXO planet.

“Hey Lay, you okay?”

Lay jumped at the sound of Kai speaking. However, when he realized it was just him, he became less tense, glad that it wasn't the others.

Kai really didn't want Lay to leave but.. he didn't know what to do. Lay seemed pretty upset, and the other members tend to be stubborn.

Honestly, he had no idea what had happened to Lay. Lay was really eccentric and outgoing, but over the (thousands of) years, he became, well, less.

It took Lay a moment before he finally did answered. “What do you think, Kai?”

“I think everyone in our group is an idiot,” Kai merely said.

“Exactly.” Lay grabbed everything that was in the compartment and safely tucked them into a black suitcase. “I can't live with everyone’s hatred at me.”

“They don't hate you, Lay. They're just stubborn. You just have to learn how to ignore them.”

“Easy for you to say, Kai. You can just teleport everywhere. Healing doesn't do much.”

“Teleported doesn't help you guys when we're fighting, either.”

Sigh. “Let me just…. I don't know what to do.”

Kai didn't either. “Let's go spend the night somewhere, just the two of us.”

“Where?”

“Uh, I don’t know, maybe-”

Kai’s phone buzzing interrupted whatever Lay was going to say. 

Kai turned it on to see who it was, discovering that it came from an unknown number. 

He showed the screen to Lay. “Unknown number. You don't think it's blackmail again, do you?”

“I don't know. Answer it.”

He clicked the green button and pressed the phone to his ear. “Hello.”

“Oh, um……”

Kai couldn't believe it. He would know that voice anywhere.

It was..

“It's me, Taemin.”

“Wait Taemin?” Lay mouthed to Kai. All Kai could do was nod nervously.

“Oh… uh.. hey. It's me, Kai.”

He slapped his face. Of course he was Kai. Duh, he gave Taemin his number himself.

“Yeah.” A paused. “Uh, sorry it took me a while. My parents kept questioning me of what happened earlier. Unlike Minho, who didn't question it, my parents were skeptical of me fainting of dehydration.”

“Oh. Well, at least they know you're okay.”

“If it weren't for you guys, I would have thought I was going crazy. By the way, how did you guys know where I was?”

Kai didn't know how to respond to this. The truth was that he had been following Taemin home from school. Was no one going to ask why a guy who drove to school decided to walk home?

But then Taemin walked back to school, so Kai was like ‘oh.’

Of course, that's what Kai kept telling himself. He knew the real reason why he was following him, but he wanted to deny it a bit more.

“I just…. I just happened to be there. I heard your voice and I teleported in front of you, but by then you turned that-”

“You… teleported?” 

“Yeah… we each have a power. It's kind of stupid, really.”

“No, I like it.”

Taemin might not have been in the room with Kai, but he could feel his face flush red with embarrassment. 

Kai turned to Lay who took note of that. Lay awkwardly put two thumbs up but then put them down when Kai sent him a look. 

“Oh, that's why you appeared to be so fast all the time.”

“What the- Taemin I teleported you once as well, stupid.” 

Wait, did that sound mean? I shouldn't have said that. Oh no, what do-

“Oh yeah! Sorry, I was focusing on….”

“On what?”

Kai's heart leaped for a second.

“....the surroundings.”

Never mind.

Why am I getting my hopes up.

“Oh.”

“Well, I just called you to let you know I'm okay and my friends are done murdering me.”

“That's good. They did try to choke you or something?”

“You know how many times I have choked today? It was like 2, 3 or 4 times. I lost count.”

“Plus a nosebleed.”

“Don't remind me.”

“Your dance was good, actually. You’ll be auditioning, right? I think you can make it.”

“You think?” Kai could hear Taemin’s sarcasm through the phone. “I tripped during class. I don’t think I will make it.”

“Well, we can practice together if you want.”

Silence. 

Oh no. Did I really just say that? What is he going to think of me? Quick, Kai, take it back before he says-

“Yeah. That would be okay.”

Before he says its stupid. Wait……. What?

“You- you don’t think it’s stupid?”

“Why would I think that?”

Kai looked around, Lay long forgotten, who was just unpacking all his stuff away again. Thank god. He really didn’t want to handle Lay leaving. 

“I….. I don’t know. I guess I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Oh, uh… sure. Okay.” Taemin sounded disappointed. 

Did Taemin really wanted to hang out with Kai? Or was he doing it out of pity? Kai had so many questions, one of them being why did he suddenly care. 

He found himself caring a lot. 

“Okay...uh….bye?”

“Why is that a question?”

“I don’t know. Don’t judge me.”

“Judging? That’s what you guys do to everyone else?” Pause. “See you later, I guess.” With that, Taemin hanged up their phone call. 

Kai stared at his screen, wondering if Taemin would call him back. Lay’s voice soon brought Kai back to reality again.  
“Okaaaaaayyyyyy…….. What was that?”

 

“Hm?” Kai turned towards him. “Oh, uh, that was-”

“The dude we saved earlier?”

“Yep. That’s the one.”

“Oh. OH YEAH! He was my partner in class, remember, before I called you over, since you-”

Kai slammed his hand on Lay’s mouth. “Don't say it.”

He slowly took his hand off Lay’s mouth, who then continued to say, “Are you excited to see him tomorrow?”

Kai simply nodded. “Actually, I am.”

\-----

The next day, school was kind of… awkward to say the least

Kai had English for his next class. Tao and Chen were in it, but so was Kibum and……. Taemin.

Considering the previous day’s events, Taemin looked okay. He sat in the second row next to Kibum. His friend kept trying to make conversation, but Taemin didn't seem to be in the mood today.

Kai did the only thing he could think of. He went to his contacts on his phone, found the one that he saved as “Lee Taemin” and sent him a text.

You okay?

Kai looked at Taemin across the room. Taemin was fiddling in his bag for something, which turned out to be his own phone. Taemin touched the screen a couple of times and then yelled out an “Ah!!!”

The whole class turned to look at him like if he was on drugs. Kai immediately felt guilty for making him react like that.

“Do you have something to say, Lee Taemin?”

Taemin looked embarrassed from all the attention. He turned his head around until his eyes met Kai’s.

He gave Kai a stern look.

“I'm sorry, teacher. I scratched my hand.” He lifted up his hand to show her, which had a long, ugly gushing scratch on it.

“Oh my goodness,” the teacher replied. She turned to face the class. “Someone take him to the nurse, please.”

“Let Jongin do it,” said that stupid Kibum.

Wow….just…. wow….

“That's fine by me. Kim Jongin, take Lee Taemin to the nurse’s office, please. Wrap that with some napkins or something first, though.” She went to her desk to write them both a pass.

They were quiet on the way to the nurse’s office. Kai knew that it was his fault that Taemin was injured during class, but it wasn't like he did that on purpose. He just… wanted to know if Taemin was okay.

Wait…. I never got my response.

“Uh, Taemin, are….. are you okay?” Kai’s voice got higher towards the end of the sentence.

Taemin looked at Kai as if he were crazy. “My arm is bleeding,” he said, lifting said arm as if to prove a point. “And I can kill people. But, you know, as peachy as Onew’s peach pies.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Yeah, I know what you meant.” He let a sigh. “To be honest, I…. I don’t know what I feel.”

 

“About what?”

“About….” Taemin started making weird gestures with his arms, “this? I don’t know.”

“Okay…. That was really specific. You narrowed down my list, Tae.”

“Oh, so now I’m Tae?”

“Well, you call me Kai.”

“You said you like it when I call you Kai. And besides, it’s not like I can call you that in school.”

“Like you would know. Besides, how many times have you been injured since yesterday? The cafeteria, the nosebleed in class, the guy who almost choked you to death, and now-”

 

“You are never going to let these events drop, are you?”

“Nope,” Kai replied, popping the p. “I may be old, but I have excellent photographic memory.”

“You’re a show off,” Taemin said, playfully pushing Kai out of the way. Unfortunately, that hand had some blood on it, so some of it was rubbed on Kai’s white button-up shirt. 

Taemin didn’t realize he smeared it with blood until afterwards. “OH MY GOD I’M SO SORRY!”

 

“Taemin, shut up. You said no more apologizing.”

 

“Well, I’m sorry. And it’s not like anything you apologized for was your fault.”

“Well, in that case, now you owe me.”

 

“What! No.”

“Then you’re apology means nothing.”

 

Taemin couldn’t see another way out. “Fine. What do you want me to do?”

 

Disturbing thoughts aside, Kai didn’t know what to ask. He didn’t think he would get this far. 

“Um….. let’s go get pizza after school.”

 

Taemin smiled. “That I can do.”

 

\----

The air felt nice again in the afternoon, and Kai couldn’t help but think that it felt just like summer again. Of course, school was still in session, so that dampered his mood again. 

It’s not that school was boring; over the centuries, more knowledge has been gained by humans, and it was interesting how the speed of progress has been for these past few decades in particular. However, Kai was an old alien being, and he lost count of how many times he has been to school. Most kids could barely last four years in high school, now imagine him. 

The last time Kai had been in school was 1997 when he graduated from a high school in Canada. Every ten or twenty years, they go to some different school in a different country or city so that no one could recognize them. 

It was interesting, really. He knew every single language in the world, including many that are dead or [thought to be] extinct. Of course, it wasn’t like they could share this knowledge with anyone. 

Kai got bored of sitting under the tree where he was at, even though it provided him a nice shade from the sun. He set his back down on the ground so that he was lying on the grass with his knees still up, arms behind his head. 

Earlier, he agreed with Taemin that they would go to a nice pizza joint that was a walking distance from school. Luckily, unlike yesterday, Taemin wasn't late to school and decided to walk in the morning instead.

He wanted to text Taemin to see where the hell was he, but he felt too lazy to get his phone. 

He closed his eyes for a while, daydreaming about what he was going to do after high school. He could go to college for a few years and work for a bit, but it would never last; people would start to wonder why they don't age. 

One time, Chen wanted to stay somewhere a little longer, and the FBI started following them. That nasty incident wasn't something that Kai liked to remember; Luhan almost got killed, and he would have if Kai didn't teleport in time. Good thing Tao made everything go slower.

He opened his eyes again since he didn't want to remember that again, and he was face to face with, you guessed it, Taemin.

Kai could feel his neck getting all hot and prickly again. 

“Oh!” Taemin moved his head away, allowing Kai to lift his head and back a little, moving up his arms to support his weight. Taemin was sitting criss-crossed on the grass, his backpack next to Kai’s.

“Sorry. I thought you were dead or something.”

“Or something,” Kai mimicked.

“Shut up, Kai.”

“During this time yesterday, you-”

“No.” Kai haven't seen Taemin’s bag of chips in his hands, so he also didn't see the handful of doritos being shoved into his mouth.

Kai got up completely, choking on the chips while crumbs were falling to the floor. Once he managed, somehow, to eat them all, he grabbed his own backpack and grabbed out a water bottle. He didn't speak until he drank the whole bottle. 

“What the-”

“I don't want you to mention that ever again.”

“Why are you so sensitive?”

“Says the guys who was choking on Doritos.”

“How many times have you choked on something these past two days.”

Taemin got up from his spot. “Okay. I'll leave if you-”

“No! Don't!” said Kai a little too fast.

Gosh, I sound so desperate. What will he think?

Taemin looked at Kai. “I'm just kidding. Come on. You ready?”

Kai looked at Taemin to see if he was serious. Once Kai was sure he wasn't joking, he got up and grabbed his bag on the ground.

“I'm ready,” he exclaimed. 

“Okay.” Taemin bent down to grab his own before they walked towards the street. 

They were leaving the campus of the school when Kai noticed Taemin’s friends, who kept winking and waving at them.

“Ignore them,” Taemin told him. “They're being stupid again.”

“I can tell. At least you have friends.”

“Says the guy who has eleven other friends.”

“But I have known them forever. Literally.”

“Oh, yeah. Your immortal.”

“We can die by murder or unknown diseases.”

“That sounds lovely.”

“I know right.”

The walk to the restaurant wasn't long; it took around ten minutes when Taemin stopped in front of the pizzeria.

It was a small building with double doors and a windowpane covering the entire wall. Kai pressed his head onto the glass and noticed that the place was like three fourths full already.

“Come on,” Taemin said. “Hurry before it gets too full.”

Taemin and Kai were led to a small booth once they were inside which was towards the center of the room. The waitress asked them which drinks they wanted (both wanted Sprite) and then left.

“This place looks nice,” Kai mentioned. 

“I like it. It gets full sometimes, but we always come here to get slices. They have pizza of every flavor you can think of.”

“Like applesauce?”

Taemin looked at him with disgust. “What.”

“I'm just kidding,” Kai said quickly, putting his arms up in defense.

“I hope so,” Taemin said. “That sounds disgusting. If you make pizza disgusting, you're disgracing it.”

“I agree,” Kai said. “It's like eating the Kit Kat without separating the bars.”

“I know, right!” Taemin exclaimed. “I hate it when people do that! I start to feel like I have OCD.”

“I know what I'm doing next time you annoy me,” Kai teased.

“Oh, no you ain't. Do that, I swear to god I will turn you into black dust with my bare hands.”

“That's technically possible,” Kai mentioned.

“Oh, you want me to prove it?” Taemin said.

“Try me, man.”

Before Taemin could try that, the waitress came back with their beverages. As soon as she took their order (1 pepperoni pizza, a bag of breadsticks, 2 cups of melted cheese, an 8-count order of buffalo wings) she left them alone again. 

“I'm glad to know you eat as much as me.”

“Didn't you see my tray yesterday? You had to, considering the contents were all over us.”

“You literally just told me to stop reminding you what happened the past two days.”

“I told you. Not me.”

“Ha.”

When the waitress came back with their food, they dug into it in no time. They finished the entire meal in thirteen minutes flat, and they asked for a second pizza (vegan cheese this time) and more Sprite. The whole diner stared at them with disgusted looks on their faces. Soon, they finished that pizza, too, and then asked for an alfredo shrimp one next. Afterwards, they asked for a jumbo cookie-brownie sundae and two M n’ M milkshakes to go.

Let's say they were more stuffed than a turkey on Thanksgiving.

They tried to wobble (yeah, wobble) home, but they were too full, so they decided to take a break at the park where they sat on the benches. Kai wanted nothing more than to teleport to his bed to sleep, but of course, he couldn't do it in public. 

Plus, he was with Taemin right now. That was better than anything. 

Kai considered Taemin as his friend, however cheesy that sounded. More cheesy than the pizza they ate.

He couldn't remembered the last time he hanged out with someone like Tae. Let's be real, probably never.

“Hey, Tae.”

“Yeah?”

“From now on, you are my best friend.”

“Sorry, that's Jonghyun’s title.”

“What?!”

“I'm just kidding. My best friend in life needs to eat as much as me, and you fit the role just fine.”

Kai couldn't help it. He let out a big grin that covered his whole face. “We still have that sundae and milkshakes.”

“Dude, I may be full, but I still got room.” He reached out to open the container, and he handed Kai his spoon. 

All in all, it was a big sundae, so it did take awhile for them to finish it. Once they finished, Kai got up to throw the empty container into the trash and sat back down on the bench with Taemin.

They stayed like that for sometime talking about… nothing really. Kai knew it was getting dark, but he didn't want to go home just yet. He liked staying out, hanging out, eating a lot of food. (Of course, who didn't like eating.)

He learned a lot about him. He learned that Taemin lived alone with his two parents, he had been best friends with Jonghyun, Minho, “Key” and “Onew” (those were cool nicknames) since elementary, and he was going to college to be a professional dancer.

“You want to be a dancer?!” Kai exclaimed, hardly believing what he heard.

“What, you think that just because I tripped in class yesterday doesn't mean I can't dance. I specifically remember Yix - wait Lay - saying that he could find nothing wrong in my routine.”

Kai’s head filled with the memory of Lay yesterday threatening to leave. He felt depressed just thinking about it.

Taemin saw his mood shift. “Did I say something?” 

“No, it's, uh…… something happened yesterday, and…. I don't know…..”

“Oh, it's fine. I'm sorry I asked about-”

“No, it's because…”

Should I tell him?

No. 

Yes?

Screw it.

“Lay threatened to leave yesterday.”

Taemin blinked, taken aback by this sudden outburst. “Define leave.”

Kai took some time in order to word it carefully. “He… he said we never take him seriously about some…..stuff, and he said he was going to leave to pursue it himself.”

Taemin remained silent; he didn't know what to do with this information. 

As awkward as things were going, Kai didn't want this evening to end. Sadly, it wasn't like they had Tao here to make this moment last. It eventually did get dark, and Taemin stated that he had to get home.

“I'll take you home,” Kai said, abruptly.

“No, it's fine. I can manage.” Taemin started heading his way home, so Kai just tagged along.

“I'm not leaving until I see you go into your house.”

“Why. You're a stalker, you know.”

“A handsome one.”

“And why does that matter?”

“Aww, you're so sweet, Tae. I love you.” Kai moved his head to place a kiss on Taemin’s left cheek.

Oh god. What am I doing.

Oh my god. What did I do? What's wrong with me? Am I making it so obvious?

I need to stop saying oh.

“You're disgusting,” Taemin exclaimed, but Kai didn't notice how red his neck was turning.

“Says the guy who stuffed Doritos in my mouth.”

“Yeah, well…. you never shut up.”

“My and the others had the nickname ‘Silent 12’ and you're saying I never shut up.”

“You told me you guys are old, power-given aliens who still can't tell me certain stuff.”

That's true. But I can't tell him about…..

Well, everything.

Before Kai could say something, his phone started ringing with the ringtone of a man screaming some unintelligible stuff.

“Oh, that's Suho.” Kai rummaged around his bag until he found his smartphone, the screen showing a ridiculous photo of Suho, the contact name being “annoying mom.”

He pressed the green button that accepted the call and pressed the phone against his ear. “Yello.”

“Kai, you need to come back home.”

He looked over at Taemin, who has stopped walking, as well, and was glancing at the neighborhood they were in. Wait, this is Tae’s neighborhood.

Stalking him - no, scratch that, he seas merely following him - the other day comes in handy.

I don't want to go home yet.

“But I’m having fun. I'm with a friend right now. I don't want to go back, yet.”

“Well, if that friend is Taemin. bring him. Lay needs him for something.”

“Wait, let me get this straight.” He returned walking, again, at a neck-breaking pace. Taemin struggled to keep up with him. “You want me to bring Taemin to use as an experiment for something?!”

Taemin, surprised, turned to stare at Kai, wondering if he heard that correctly. Kai probably shouldn’t have raised his voice that loud. 

“Use me as what?” Taemin questioned him. 

“Look, Kai, we want to figure out why he has that…power. It won’t take long, and it won’t hurt him, either.”

“It’s not my decision,” Kai screamed at him. He frantically pressed the red “end call” button and slammed his phone to the ground. 

Taemin, like before, had no idea what just occurred. Experiment for what?

“Um, Kai...your phone.”

“Yeah, I know.” He bent down to pick up the pieces, stuffing them back into his pocket. Maybe D.O can fix it later.

“Can I ask what that was about?” Before Kai could say anything, Taemin raised his hand up. “And don’t you dare tell me that was personal business, ‘because you said my name. You may be old, but I doubt that you were talking about another Taemin.”

 

Kai let out a puff of air. He wasn’t going to get out of this one, either.

“They want to know where your…...power came from, so they are probably going to run genetic tests on you.”

Taemin stopped walking and reached out to grab Kai’s hand. “Well, let’s go.”

 

Did I hear that correctly? “What? You…..you’re okay with it?”

 

Taemin nodded. “I don’t want to kill anyone else.”

 

“But you’re grabbing my hand…”

 

“I promise I won’t kill you. Unless you eat all my food.”

 

“What a nice friendship we have, Tae.”

 

“I know, right.”

 

With Taemin’s soft, warm hand in his own, Kai lead them towards a hidden alley, and after making sure no one was on their trail, he teleported them both back to the central room at Kai’s house. He (sadly) let go of Tae’s hand, took off his bag and threw it on the couch, which landed on someone’s face. 

“What the heck Kai!” Baekhyun shouted. Kai’s bag did weigh a couple of tons. 

 

“Oops. Sorry.”

 

Chanyeol reached over and took Baekhyun’s head into his hands, massaging his face carefully. “You okay?”

 

Baekhyun relaxed under Chanyeol’s grasp, letting him rub him his eyes. “I’m going to murder Taemin’s boyfriend.”

“I’m not his boyfriend.”

 

“It looks like you’re going to get one, though.” 

Kai looked at him with an astonishing look on his face (which wasn’t hit with a bag.) How did he know that?

He pulled him aside and whispered, “stop making those guesses.”

 

“What guesses? This is the first time I say it out loud.”

“Do you have a second power that includes mind reading as well?”

 

“No. I just happen to know these things. I guessed, correctly, I might add, that Jonghyun had a crush on Key. Still wondering when that’s going to happen.” He lifted up one finger. “I guessed that Yifan - no, Kris - and Suho had something going on for a while.” He lifted up a second finger. “I was right about that, too.” 

“You’re lying.”

 

“No I’m not. Tell me if these assumptions are wrong.” He lifted up a third finger. “Luhan and Sehun obviously have a thing for each. The sweetness level is higher than that sundae we ate, earlier.” 

He lifted up a fourth finger, using his other hand to point to the lovebirds on the couch. “These two might rival them, though.”

“Aren't you a love expert? Is it like a gaydar or something?”

“I'm a pansexual, excuse you. And it's not a gaydar. You can't just assume someone's sexuality. However, you can tell when someone is in love.”

Wait, he’s pan? So he can like guys…..

“Well, who am I in love with?”

Taemin pondered for a minute, confidence gone. The color on his face drained away. “You're in love with someone?”

“.... Yeah.”

Taemin looked disappointed. He didn't seem interested anymore. He sort of looked… down.

“Oh. Well, I don't know who you're in love with, then.”

“Aren't you curious?”

Taemin stared, lazy-eyes, to the wall behind him. “Do I know them.”

“Yeah. You know him really well.”

“Then I don't want to know.

Stupid Tae. Isn't it obvious? I'm in love with you.

\----

Baekhyun stared at the two boys in front of him and Chanyeol. They seemed to be arguing about something.

They were being secretive about it, but for what reason, he didn't know. He didn't catch what they said in the beginning, but he did heard the ending. 

Specifically the part of Kai saying he was in love with someone and Taemin looking like he was slapped with a brick. 

You have got to be kidding me. Are they serious? If they are, I'm going to stab them with my eyeliner.

Chanyeol startled him when he reached out to tangle his hair. He lept up in surprise.

“Ow!” Chanyeol took his hands away, folding them inside his lap. “Sorry. You just seem troubled about something.”

“Those two are so oblivious to everything.”

Chanyeol scoffed at him. “Really, Baekhyun. Aren't you one to point fingers.”

“What?! What did I do?”

“You're oblivious, too, dummy.” Chanyeol got off the couch, making Baekhyun fall back. “I can't believe I'm living with an idiot.”

“What am I oblivious at? You're the one being oblivious?”

Chanyeol’s face turned red. He lifted his arm to grab his neck. “Are we even talking about the same thing?”

“Wait. What are you talking about?”

“Nothing, Baekhyun. Forget it.” With that, Chanyeol exited the room.

Baekhyun stayed where he was, eyes fixated onto the ceiling. They quickly went out of focus, considering how he was lost in thought.

What did Chanyeol mean when he called him oblivious? Baekhyun was flirting with him, god dang it. Chanyeol wasn't flirting back.

Gosh, this made him so frustrated. 

Wait, was he flirting back? It's kind of hard to tell.

Oh, whatever. This crush has been going for 116 years. And yes, Baekhyun kept count of everything.

What was he suppose to do?

“Hey, where’d Chanyeol go?” Kai asked him.

He shrugged his shoulders. Chanyeol was being so worrisome lately. 

“Uh… I have a.. a question.” Taemin questioned him. “Where’s, uh….”

“The rest?” Baekhyun answered impatiently. He wanted nothing more than to follow Chanyeol to see where the heck he went, but he didn't want another lecture from Suho today. “I don't know, actually, and I don't care.”

He stayed there, lying on the couch. Oh, what he would do if he had Kai’s power of teleportation. That lucky idiot. Not that his power wasn't cool.

One thing was for sure, though. If he could teleport, he would annoy D.O as much as he could. Who wouldn't.

He barely heard Kai and Taemin leave the room (probably teleported just to spite him) but he did know the exact moment D.O did.

“Hey, where is everybody? Are they at the lab or something?”

“Don't know, don't care.”

“Chanyeol’s in the ground floor living room.”

Baekhyun bolted out of his seat before D.O could even finish his sentence. However, not wanting to make it obvious, he stopped at the doorway. “I… have to do something. I’ll be right back.”

“Uh huh. Sure.” D.O mumbled under his breath.

“Dude. Don’t judge me because I have a life.”

“We all have one. A really long one.”

“Okay? And do I care?”

 

“Just go and get your boyfriend.”

Baekhyun shifted the weight of his feet. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

 

“And I’m five years old.”

 

“You act like it.”

“Shut the hell up, Bacon.”

“At least I don’t get burned all the time.”

“At least I won’t get burn in hell.”

“Oh, good one,” shouted Baekhyun as he left the room. 

Inquiring to himself again why couldn’t he have a power than allow him to go wherever he pleases, he didn’t even take the elevator; that’s how much in a hurry he was.

He (somehow) managed to take three steps at a time without tripping or injuring himself (majorly). However, when he arrived at the first level underground, he slowed down and took his time, not wanting to appear as if he were in a rush or anything. 

Man, I am more whipped than a lemon meringue pie. 

Speaking of food, Baekhyun realized he wanted something to eat. Maybe he could go to a restaurant or something. Wait, didn’t Kai tell him that he was going to a pizzeria today? Boy, that was the only thing Kai talked about this morning. Wait, didn’t they eat pizza yesterday?

Maybe he could order Chinese to spite Yixing. They all did that every now and then. 

Or chicken to annoy Kris. Man, was he bored. 

He finished climbing up the stairs and entered the passcode to go to the central room. (They had to enter a passcode on both sides, for some reason. 

He waiting as the door slided open and he stepped into the room. There, sitting on the couch, was Chanyeol, who was already eating a freaking donut while reading a book. 

“Dang it, Chanyeol, I was going to ask you if you wanted to eat lunch wiht me right now.”

Chanyeol looked up, his sparkling eyes staring into Baekhyun’s own. Wait, were those tears? 

Chanyeol wiped his face with his fingers and rubbed his eyes a little. He stuffed the rest of the donut into his face before standing up, book tossed to the side. 

“That’s fine. Where do you want to go?”

 

“Um… I don’t know….”

Chanyeol gave Baekhyun a smirk. “I know just where to go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha. Cliffhanger. 
> 
> Next Thursday as well. HAVE YOU GUYS HEARD ABOUT JHOPE AND THE HIXTAPE?! SO EXCITED!! SHINee'S AND BTS AND THEIR COMEBACK WHO'S READY!
> 
> Shoutout to the "i need friends im lonely" groupchat on BTS Amino lol


	3. Um.. Okay?

They were all in the main central room a little while later with Baekhyun and Chanyeol absent. Taemin assumed that they were probably hanging out with each other. Hey, his intuitions have all been right; Kai never denied it.

 

Earlier, Lay ran some tests on him, which wasn’t much, honestly. He drew some blood, took some strands of hair, and asked Taemin if he could turn something, _anything_ , into dust again. He accidently destroyed the chair he was on.

Taemin wanted to know if it were possible to just turn a piece into dust, or just harm a person a little, but of course he didn’t want to test _that_ on a person. Only if he were in a position again in which someone was going to murder him.

 

_Ah, yes. That was a lovely day. Running late, being choked to death, killing someone. I have fulfilled my purpose in life._

 

Lay complained that it would take a while, so they were just hanging out in the room waiting. Kai and him were happily munching on some noodles that Xiumin brought, but Taemin was still replaying his conversation with Kai earlier.

 

_So he’s in love with someone. That’s cool. Why should I care? Who said he was playboy again?_

 

_Ha. Someone in the S12 being a playboy. I can hardly believe my eyes. They looked so terrified of everyone, yet they look terrifying._

 

 _Wait. How does that work?_   


_Wait. Why do_ I _care about his love life? He’s just a friend. A best friend who eats a surprisingly big amount of food._

 

“Tae, you okay?”  


Startled, Taemin looked up at Kai, holding the empty carton of noodles in his hand. Taemin looked down to see his own, which was only halfway done.

 

“Why’d you stop eating? Wouldn’t you eat, like, three boxes or something?”  


Taemin shrugged, putting his noodles down on the floor along with the plastic chopsticks that came with it. “Nah. I’m not hungry.”  
  
“Why?”

 

“Um..” Taemin struggled to come up with a good excuse. “I don’t know. I just don’t feel like it.”  


Kai narrowed his eyes at him, not buying it. However, instead of prying him any further, he just picked up the noodles from the ground and ate them himself, making slurping noises as he did.

 

“Hey, who said you could have my noodles?”  


“You said you weren’t hungry,” Kai responded, mouthful of noodles still in his mouth.

 

“Ew. You’re disgusting.”  


“Wow. I never noticed. Thank you for your input, Tae.”

 

“Whatever, Jongin. Do what you want.”

 

Kai let out a scowl. “I told you I prefer Kai.”

 

“I prefer your highness, thank you very much. Nice to know that we had this conversation.”

 

“Why are _you_ in a mood,” Kai muttered under his breath. Taemin didn’t catch it, though.

 

Suddenly, Lay rushed in, waving a stack of files from his hands. “GUYS! I GOT BIG NEWS!!!”  


Everyone perked up, eager to hear what he had to say. Kai even put down his own noodles that he stole from Taemin.

 

They gathered around Lay, waiting for the news. He started ordering around a bit, asking Kris for some documents and for Kai to quickly pick up Baekhyun and Chanyeol. With that, Kai teleported, leaving Taemin alone with everyone with news about _him._

 

_Wait, if I’m positive, than that means…. My parents are from EXO planet and they lied, or….._

 

_I’m not their real son._

 

Taemin suddenly wished that he was negative. He didn’t want anything to do with the planet.

 

Kai came back with Baekhyun and Chanyeol in tow, wondering what big event they missed. Kris also came back minutes later, papers in his hands. With everything in place, Lay finally spoke up.

 

“He’s not from the EXO planet. Or any ancestry, really.”

 

Everyone chimed in at once.

 

“Wait, what do you _mean_ he’s not? Then how do you explain his killing ability?”   


“How’s that possible! This makes no sense!”  


“Lay, you must have done your experiment wrong or something. There’s no way.”

 

“GUYS SHUT UP. LET ME SPEAK FOR ONE SECOND.”

 

That shut them up. Taemin really wanted to hear this explanation.

 

Lay took a deep breath and continued. “His genetics are the same as humans, nothing like ours. However, I did notice that some of his genes have turned haywire. Basically-”  


“Lay, speak English.”  


“Guys, we speak all the languages. That’s not a valid argument.”

 

“You’ve been in school forever. How do you not know what he’s saying?”

 

_Is this going to take forever? Why does everyone always chime in?_

 

Taemin was still getting used to this. I mean, it must be troublesome being in a room with 12 people who were old powerful beings who still fought like 8-year-olds. Did they have to be 20,000 or something to be mature or what?

 

Lay wasn’t having any of this. He just stood there in the middle of all this, hands clasped in front of him as he patiently waited for them to finish. Once they realized this, they shut up.

 

“I _really_ don’t understand why you guys want me here if you’re just going to talk over me.” He took a deep breath and blantly said, “he was injected with a mutation. DON’T!” He raised up his right hand, knowing they were going to try to chatter again. “Let me finished. There are some genes of his that are different than those of normal humans. Obviously, not a varied as ours, so someone must have tampered with his.”   


“Um, _what?”_ Taemin merely said.

 

 _I don’t get. I JUST don’t get it. Someone_ changed _my genes? How is that even_ possible _? Isn’t there, like, some limitations of gene therapy or something?! HOW?_   


“Someone messed up with your genetic code, Tae,” Kai replied. “But…. why? How did they do that?” Kai faced his focus back on Lay again. “Lay, do you know what caused that to occur?”  


“I’m going to need more time. I’m going to have to use some connections to get the resources I need. Actually,” he stared at the ceiling, lost in thought for a few seconds. “I think they’re at the safehouse in Mexico.”  


“Mexico? Lay, we don’t have _time_ to go to Mexico!”   


“Someone tried to kill him. Maybe they _knew_ what he was, explaining their motivations. And if they are who we _think_ they are, I say we have plenty of time.”   


“You still don’t know for su-”  


“I have many pieces of evidence stating otherwise.”  


“I can go to Mexico,” Kai piped up.

 

No one responded. They knew there would be no counter-argument. Kai could teleport other people with him, so there was none of that “you can’t go alone” crap. It wasn’t going to take long, either so it solved that issue as well.

 

Some just didn’t want him to go.

 

“I….can go with him, if it’s no trouble,” Taemin heard himself say.

 

_What am I saying? Why am I even involved with this? It’s none of m-_

 

_Wait. It is. This is all because of me. If I just stayed home or just stayed at school in the first place, everything would be fine. I would have never associated with these freaks, I wouldn’t have to worry about killing others, and I won’t have time to worry about Kai’s-_

 

 _“_ That’s fine. I’ll go to. Anyone else?”

 

“I’ll stay,” Sehun said softly.

 

Luhan chimed in as well. “Me too. Someone’s got to take care of the house.”

 

“How can you call this a house,” Chanyeol asked. “I’ll stay, too.”  


Soon, everyone was stating whether they will stay or go. Luhan, Sehun, Chanyeol, Baekhyun, Tao and Kris would stay, while the rest would go. Lay said there were some stuff they could still do for him.

 

“Hey, Kai,” Taemin asked him. “Do you _really_ think you can carry six people, including yourself? Wouldn’t that be a problem?”

 

Kai let out a low whistle. “Boy, I’ve carried all twelve of us once. It doesn’t do anything as far as I know of. However, a greater number would make it easier for people to see us. They only use me for emergencies and stuff.”

 

“Oh. That makes sense.” He stayed silent for a minute.

 

“I can also teleport in air.”  


“In- what? What the hell, Kai?!” Taemin makes a scowl on his face, wondering what the heck does Kai mean about that.

 

“One day, D.O and I were bored, so we decided to go bungee jumping from a cliff. Lay came along with us.” He paused, a smile forming on his face. “That day was _great_ . I ate like 5 pints of ice cream. Ah. Oh, anyway,” he continued. “I was bungee jumping when the rope broke.”   


Taemin blinked his eyes. Did he just hear that correctly?

 

“Did you die?”

 

Kai gave Taemin a serious look that lasted for about 10 seconds before he bursted out laughing. Like, Kai was _laughing_ laughing. The kind of laugh that lets salty tears flood your eyes and makes you clutch your stomach because of the pain. This resulted in Taemin being confused before realizing his mistake.

 

“OH MY GOD I REALIZED WHAT I SAID. THAT IS _NOT_ WHAT I MEANT. I AM SO SORRY-”

 

“Tae, you’re - Tae you’re - I’M SORRY I CAN’T. THIS IS SO FUNNY!” Kai came to a point where he fell off the chair and just rolled around the floor, arms wrapped around his waist.

 

“Kai, shut up already. Anyway, keep telling me the story. I want to know what happens.”

 

“You - you, ah, you want to know what _happens?_ Boy, what?” Whatever Taemin said, Kai kept laughing harder. Taemin, finally realizing that what he said was making the situation and crossed his legs, hands folded across his lap while he patiently for Kai to finish.

 

“Kai, really?”  


“Sorry, Tae, just….” Kai sat up, legs criss crossed in front of him. “Okay. I’m done. Okay. I’ll finish.”

 

“You’ve been saying that for the past fifteen minutes, Kai. If you are going to tell a lie, make it believable or something, you know.”

 

“What do you mean, tell me lies?” Kai questioned him.

 

Taemin let out a sigh. Is this kid _really_ being serious right now?

 

“Nothing. Forget it,” Taemin concluded. He didn’t want to go over this right now. “Keep telling me about the story.”  


“The story. Oh, right……… Um…… where was I?” Kai didn’t seem to remember. “Oh yeah. Anyway,” Kai stopped. “Wait the _heck_ are you guys doing?”   


Taemin turned around. There was the rest of the group, closely interested in their conversation.

 

Oh, yeah……….. Lay was talking about something that they were suppose to listen to. Oops.

“ _When_ did you go bungee jumping, Kai? _Why haven't i heard of this?!”_ Suho started to scream at them.

 

“Gosh, Suho, calm down. Do we look dead to you,” D.O shouted back.

 

“Yeah, I was there either way,” Lay added.

 

 _“You_ two, what is wrong with you guys? Next thing you know-”

 

“Can I come?” Chen asked.

 

“Chen is going to say th- NO.”

 

“Um, why are we talking about bungee jumping again?” Baekhyun asked.

 

“Guys, we need to focus,” Sehun said. “Suho, stop being the mother, please. It’s so annoying.”

 

“Oh, but Luhan can be your daddy, right?” Chanyeol piped in.

 

Let’s just say Sehun spewed his water everything.

 

“What _the-”_

 

“Sorry, I choked,” Sehun squealed while covering his face, not wanting the blush to show on his face.

 

_Ha. I knew it. When are those two kids going to ask the other one out? This is killing me._

 

Trying to direct the current conversation back to the main one, Lay spoke up. “So…. when are we going? It has to be during the weekend right?”  


“Oh, yeah, definitely, absolutely,” Kris exclaimed.

 

Lay blinked, then put his hand up. “What? Are you being sarcastic again?”  


Baekhyun jumped up from where he was sitting. “Well, this has been an _interesting_ conversation, but I have somewhere to be, so if you all excuse me-”   


“Where are _you_ going?” Xiumin asked.

 

“Why do _you_ care?” Baekhyun asked him.

 

All of a sudden, Taemin felt someone’s hand wrap around his own, and before he realized what was going on, he suddenly found himself in his room.

 

 _Wait, what? Was I sleeping or something? But…….why would I be dreaming of_ that?

 

 _Wait……...why am I not on my bed? Was I sleepwalking again?_   


He looked down to see if he was wearing his pajamas, which he wasn’t. Why was it that nowadays, he had no clue _what_ was going on? Does _anyone_ know how many existential crises he has been having lately?   


“Huh. Well, now that I’m awake, I guess I’ll go make myself some breakfast or something.”  


“Wait, what do you _mean_ you’re awake,” he heard Kai pipe up.

 

Taemin jumped, startled by his voice. “What are _you_ doing here?”   


“I _literally_ just teleported us here from my house to yours and now you think you were _asleep_ the entire time?!”   


“So much weird stuff has happened these past few days, it’s something that has been happening recently that I’m used to it.”  


Kai moved forward, putting his head close to Taemin. They were so close to one another that they could feel the other one’s breath. Taemin couldn’t help but notice that Kai’s was….sweet and salty. Like….oh, I don’t know, salted caramel.

 

_Salted caramel. Of all the smells in the world, Kai had to smell like salted caramel. Why?_

 

_Why am I noticing this?_

 

Oh, now he was hungry. Dang it.

 

“Even if I _didn’t_ sleep, I still want food. Are you going to join me or not?” Taemin walked to the door of his room, already turning the knob to walk out.

 

“Wait, didn’t we _just_ eat noo-”   


“I don’t care, I’m hungry. Actually,” Taemin stared at the ceiling, muttering some stuff to himself. Hopefully Kai didn’t hear his useless babbling.

 

“Uh, _what_ did you say?”   


“I want to make..” _What should I make? I want something sweet. Yeah, let’s make……_ ”brownies.”

 

“ _Brownies?_ Are you doing drugs now, Tae?”   


“What? No, Kai, what’s wrong with you? I want brownies. The chewy, fudgy legal kind.”  


“That sounds boring.”  


“Well, I’m not putting pot in them, you do that yourself.”  


“No, I mean… how do I explain this?” Kai brought both his hands together and put them in front of his mouth, thinking. “Like, just plain brownies, or are we going to add marshmallows or like white chocolate and stuff like that.”  


“Oh.” Well, now Taemin felt like the dumbest person alive. “Well, I was planning on doing…..salted caramel.”  


“Salted what?”  


“Salted caramel. I’ve been craving them..” _since a few minutes ago_ “for a while now.”

 

“Oh, okay. Well, let’s go make some brownies, then.” Kai went past him and ran out the door, and by the time Taemin left the room as well, Kai was already halfway down the stairs.   


“Why are you running if you can teleport, dummy?” Taemin asked while he ran down the stairs to follow Kai.   


“Cause I want to check out your house. Duh.”  


“If you want to check out my house, why are you running, period?”  


“Cause I want to hurry and make the brownies, dummy.”  


“Kai, you can’t keep changing your-” Taemin didn’t get to finish as he hit something towards the bottom of the stairs and lost his footing, causing him to fall down.

 

“TAEMIN!” Kai, who was already in the kitchen, teleported right in front of Taemin, catching him. However, the momentum threw him off balance as well, so they both ended up falling down the base of the stairs, with Taemin landing on top of Kai, safely in his arms.

 

They stayed there for about a minute, both still in shock. Due to Kai cushioning his fall, Taemin didn’t feel much pain. However, considering Kai who fell on the floor _and_ had someone fall on him, he must be injured a lot.

 

_Kai…_

 

The thought of Kai injured brought Taemin back to reality. He scrambled to get up from Kai, and then he knelt down next to him, shaking his shoulders.   


“Kai. Kai. Kai!” He kept repeating his name like a mantra, hoping that Kai would wake up if he wasn’t already dead.

 

_Oh god how could I think that? Kai can’t be dead, he just can’t. Oh god what am I going to do if he is?_

 

_Kai, wake up, please._

 

“Kai, wake up! This isn’t funny!”

 

“Aw, dang it, I thought you would have fell for it,” Kai muttered, eyes still kept closed.

 

Taemin stood up, not believing what just came out of his mouth. “You’re not… hurt?”  


“Of course not, dummy!” Kai shouted. He sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “I told you we don’t die easily.”  


“Well,” Taemin shifted the weight of his feet, hands behind his back as he was unsure of what to do. “That wasn’t funny.”  
  
“Well, _excuse_ me for not wanting to get up. I just fell down a flight of stairs. You need to be more careful, Tae.”   
  
“I’m sorry. I..” _Oh yeah. This all happened because I didn’t watch where I was going. “_ Thanks for saving me.”   


“It’s not a problem, don’t worry.” Kai stopped rubbing his head and got up on his feet. He also seemed unsure of what to do now. “Um….I really want brownies.”

 

Taemin let out a sigh. “The legal ones, right?”

 

“Yep,” Kai replied. “The salted caramel ones.”  


\-----

 

The brownies ended up being delicious.

 

Taemin found a book of his old pastry recipes and, after a few modifications, made the recipe from scratch in a loose leaf of paper and a tiny pencil on the fridge. He made some calculations of how much of every ingredient he would need and then proceeded to taking stuff out of cupboards.

 

Kai didn’t appear to have a clue of what Taemin was doing, but he didn’t want to be useless so he ended up being the assistant. Taemin mixed the batter, poured a small amount of it into a bowl and poured the rest into the brownie pan.

 

“Wait, what are you doing with _that_?” Kai asked.

 

“Five minutes before the brownies are ready, I like to pour a thin layer of this on the top so that it could be extra-moist. Don’t worry, it tends to be fully-cooked when I take them out, so you won’t get salmonella.”  


“When I said I could die of some diseases, I didn’t mean salmonella.” Kai receded. “Have you ever _met_ someone who has had it?”   


“Uh, no.” Taemin didn’t recall anyone ever having it. “Whatever. I eat raw batter anyway.” To prove his point, he grabbed some batter with the red spatula that he had and put it in his mouth.

 

“Hey!” Kai exclaimed. “Save me some, too!” Without grabbing a utensil, Kai used his fingers instead and licked them off with his tongue.

 

“You’re disgusting,” Taemin argued while getting some more.

 

By the time the brownies were missing five minutes and Taemin added the layer of batter on top, the kitchen had been cleaned up and the leftover batter in their stomachs. They would have finished sooner if Kai didn’t drop the bag of flour on the floor, causing it to look like winter. Besides, Kai looked cute either way with flour on his messy brown hair.

 

_Stop it, Taemin. Stop paying attention to his looks. He already said he was interested in someone. Stop acting that you have feelings for him._

 

_But I do have feelings. I think that maybe…_

_No. Don’t._

 

“Is something wrong?” Kai asked.

 

“Hm?” Taemin didn’t know what Kai was asking. “Nothing’s wrong. What makes you say that?”  


“You looked to be thinking about something,” Kai explained himself. “Is it the brownies or something?”  


“No, not really. I’m just….thinking about the flour earlier.”  


“Ah, man, I already told you that I would pay you-”  


“And I already said that no, it’s fine. Besides, I’m not thinking about _that_. More like how winter is over and summer is coming soon.” Taemin grabbed a nearby chair and plopped down on it.

 

“What are you doing for the summer?” Kai asked.

 

Taemin shrugged, not really knowing what to say. He hadn’t really thought of doing anything this year. He actually wanted to go somewhere, but he didn’t have that much money, and besides, he wanted to check out Japan by the end of senior year, so…. Nothing much, really.

 

“Ah, come on, Tae. You don’t do _anything?_ Nothing at all?!”

 

“No, none unless Onew, Key, Jonghyun or Minho plan something. There’s nothing really to do. I mean, summer is just another season-”  


“ _Just_ another season?! Do you even know the lies you are spewing out of your mouth?”

 

“Lies? Kai, I really don’t do anything in the summer. I just sleep all day, I guess. And eat.”

 

“Well, we have to do something this summer. All seventeen of us.”

 

“Seventeen? Isn’t that-” Taemin stopped after realizing that Kai meant his friends and his own. “Wait, you want _my_ friends to come as well?”   


“Yeah.” It was Kai’s turn to shrug his shoulders. “Why not?”

 

“Nothing,” Taemin said a little too quickly. He honestly didn’t have a problem with it.

 

“Hm… where can we go..” Kai started to ponder.

 

“Nowhere.” Taemin stated. “Because I am B-R-O-K-E.” He crossed his arms across his shoulders.   


“You’re what?”  


“Do you _not_ know how to spell, Kai, or am I going to have to teach you that, too?”   


“Wait, what did _you_ teach me?”

 

Ignoring him, Taemin repeated himself again, this time not spelling the word. “I’m broke, Kai. I can’t go anywhere.”

 

“I’ll pay for you. It’s-”  


“Not that simple,” Taemin finished. “You can’t just give me your money.”  


“Why not?” Kai asked, a puzzled look on his face.

 

Taemin sighed. “You can’t just hand people your money, Kai.”  


“But you’re not just any person, Tae. Remember, we said we were best friends? Or does that mean nothing to you?”

 

 _Mean nothing? You think it means nothing, Kai?! I can’t_ believe _you are asking me these questions right now!_

 

Was Kai being _serious_ right now? Taemin didn’t know. Oh, how much he wanted to know what was going on in that head of Kai’s. Sometimes Kai left him with more questions than answers.

 

He took a closer look at Kai’s face. Kai genuinely looked hurt by Taemin’s comment. How did Taemin hurt him? Rejecting people’s money isn’t suppose to hurt them.

 

Taemin didn’t raise his voice this time; instead, he spoke in a low voice. “You are my best friend Kai, and that’s why I’m rejecting your money.”  


“But we have to do something together. It would be nice if we could all just hang out….” Kai’s voice trailed off at the end of the sentence.

 

“Well..” Taemin racked his brain up for possibilities. “Tomorrow is Friday. We can do something then.”

 

He earned a grin from Kai, but it later turned into fear when the timer rang, signaling that the brownies were down. “Ah! That scared me!”  


“L-O-L,” Taemin said, mitts already on. He took out the pan of brownies and put them on top of the stove so that they can cool. He walked over to the fridge, took out some milk, and from the cupboards he grabbed the chocolate powder and two large glassed.

 

“Do you want regular or chocolate milk?” He asked Kai.

 

“Chocolate’s fine.” He sat down on the breakfast bar across from Taemin, who was preparing the chocolate milk. He made them really dark, almost the same color as the brownies.

 

Taemin wasn’t going to lie, the brownies looked _awesome._ The salted caramel and the fudge in the brownies produced a nice swirl, and the top layer looked gooey and warm as well. The salt in the caramel didn’t burn at all; it made it look like there we white specks in the brownies.

 

Not wanting to wait any longer, Kai got up and rummaged around the cupboards and drawers for the plates and forks. He grabbed a knife as well and cut the brownie up into big slices. Thanks to whatever knowledge Taemin had, the brownies didn’t stick.

 

Taemin, being done with making the chocolate milk, just watched at what Kai was doing. He couldn’t help but notice how much concentration Kai put just to make sure he didn’t ruin anything. With his tongue out and his eyes furrowed, Taemin couldn’t help but smile at him.

 

Kai finished cutting them and then served Taemin’s first, following himself. Taemin led him to the living room, where they sat on the couch and took their first bites.

 

Yep, Taemin was right. The brownies tasted _so good_ , the caramel having the right amount of salt, the chocolate being sweet but not too much that it made them want to throw up. The cake wasn’t crumbly or hard, just soft enough. This brownie might as well be the offspring of heaven.

 

Taemin devoured his whole brownie in just seconds. Kai seemed to be in ecstasy as well, who couldn’t help but moan when he took the first bite.

 

Taemin, confused asked him, “ What in the world, Kai?”  


“I’m sorry,” Kai said between bites. “It’s so good.” He continued munching his brownie, pausing every once in awhile to drink his chocolate milk before consuming.

 

They finished the whole pan in half an hour.

 

\-------

 

Luhan wasn’t going to lie - he had a massive crush on Sehun.

 

It was sort of an accident, really. It was about one hundred years before they left Exo planet, thousands of years from today.

 

They met one day in a meadow. His dad was trying to make him do “noble stuff” again, complaining how he needs to “be a better leader” if he was going to inherit whatever his dad own. Not being like most rich people from where they were from, Luhan escaped through his window with a bag of food, climbed a tree and stayed there for about an hour.

 

He didn’t do anything, really, and soon enough, he drifted off to a nice, deep slumber. However, a sharp shriek pierced his ears, causing him to jerk awake.

 

The sound seemed to come from below, and that’s when he first laid eyes on Sehun. He was on the ground, clutching his head in pain. Next to the ground were a small amount of red apples. Luhan looked into his bag, which had apples earlier, and found that is was now empty. They must have rolled out and hit the guy’s head.

 

Luhan jumped off the tree, landing in front of the guy and asked him if he was hurt. When he looked up though….

 

As they would say, the rest is history.

 

Thousands of years later, and Luhan still didn’t have the guts to ask this guy out. It’s just that Sehun made him nervous. In a good way, that is. Or bad way, if you were trying to make him your boyfriend.

 

Luhan decided that today was _the_ day. He was going to proclaim his love to _the_ love of his life, and _nothing_ was going to stop him. _Nothing._ He couldn’t wait any longer.

 

Currently, Luhan was in the hallway, as he was waiting for Sehun to get out of whatever room he went into. His plan was to kiss Sehun as soon as he came out.

 

Ha, came out. LOL. Sehun would come out of the room, and Luhan will come out of the closet. That’s hilarious.

 

Oh, well. He assumed _someone_ suspected he was gay, but whatever. It’s not like they were homophobic or anything. Look with Suho and Kris.

 

Ah, that was a funny day. Suho and Kris told everyone that they have been going out for 2 months, but Luhan knows that it has been at least two _years._ He walked into them sharing a kiss in the kitchen one day when he came early from school; he and Sehun planned to ditch an hour early, but of course Suho and Kris didn’t know. They were _super_ embarrassed for Luhan and Sehun to find out, so they promised not to say anything.

 

They may be super secretive, but when it comes to their relationship, those two are an open book. Everyone already knew within a year, so when they actually _told_ everyone, the whole group either stated “Kay” or “Finally.”

 

And that was that.

 

It’s been about ten minutes since Luhan had been standing here waiting for Sehun to come out, and now he was getting bored. However, he realized that he should probably explain himself afterwards.

 

Or he could just run. Better than to face him, right?  


_If I kiss Sehun and run, I won’t be embarrassed. However, he might think it was a dare or prank and be confused._

 

_Oh, gosh, I can’t do that! I want him to know that I’m in love with him. But what if he rejects me? What if he’s not even into men? Or just me? What if he thinks I’m not manly enough or something? Or he hates my past? Does he really forgive me for those apples? Does he -_

 

Luhan was such in a daze that he didn’t notice that Sehun was already in front of him. Sehun, with his head cocked sideways, just had an eyebrow raised as he waited for Luhan to say something.

 

When he did get his head out of the clouds, he jumped, startled by the person in front of him. What was he _doing?!_ He was supposed to be vigilant! Now his plan was ruined!   


_Just kiss him, Luhan. Nothing wrong will happen, just kiss him. Just do it. Do it, Luhan! NOW!_

 

“Hey Lu,” Sehun asked him. “Anything wrong? You seem to be thinking of something.”  


In the end, he only did half of his plan. He didn’t kiss Sehun, but boy, did he sure run.

 

\-----

 

He didn’t get much sleep last night.

 

No, scratch that. He didn’t get _any_ sleep. Just when he did started, Lay crawled into his bed for no reason. An hour later, Baekhyun also crawled into his bed, too. Both cuddled with him and Luhan had no way out. When he woke up, Lay had all the pillows and Baekhyun had the blanket wrapped around him. It was a good thing that it was spring, because if it was winter, he wouldn’t have survived.

 

With their age, why do they still act like babies?

 

The next day was Friday, thank god. All Luhan wanted to do this weekend was sleep and die. In whatever order. Not that it made sense, but when did anything in his life did?

 

He didn’t want to go to school. He’s been going to school for who knows how long (only Baekhyun would know to be honest) and he didn’t need to keep going. However, people would question why these young people don’t go to school, and saying that they’re homeschool only works so far.

 

 _Maybe_ he can ask Sehun to ditch with him today. Yeah, that’s a good idea! They can go to the store, buy some candy and soda and-

 

Oh, wait. Luhan made a fool of himself yesterday. This isn’t going to work.

 

Dang it. If Luhan skips by himself, everyone would think the worst of him. Did he die? Was he kidnapped? Has he been stabbed repeatedly into the chest and left for dead in a cell below ground locked in room that’s about to go off in three minutes?

 

As for the last one, it only happened _once,_ so he only hoped that it didn’t cross their minds.

 

On second thought, maybe he shouldn’t skip today.

 

He turned around in bed, causing Lay and Baekhyun to groan and shift around as well. Luhan grabbed their arms and took them off his chest and set them aside, allowing him to quietly get off his massive bed.

 

The alarm clock blinked out the red numbers: _6:23_. That wasn’t so bad. School started at 7:30, so he had about an hour to get ready.

 

That was easier said than done, though. Every little sound he made only caused Baekhyun and Lay to stir in their sleep, and Luhan didn’t want to deal with their screeches later of why couldn’t he just be more quiet.

 

 _Wait a second._ He turned around to stare at them on his bed, who were now cuddling with each other. Ha. Maybe he should take a picture and use it for blackmail later on Bacon and say he will show it to Chanyeol. Or better yet, threaten to give it to D.O. That should scare him to do his bidding.

 

Ah. Those two tease each other all day through their relentlessness bickering so much, but it never gets old or tiring.

 

He watched the two sleep comfortably when a random thought hit him: why _hasn’t_ he waked them up? They have school, too, not just him! How did he let _that_ get past him?!

 

Luhan marched over to them with exaggerated big steps, causing a lot of noise to occur. Baekhyun and Lay kept shifting around, but Luhan didn’t care about that anymore.

 

When he reached the bed, he bent over to where he was looming over them. He took off Baekhyun’s blanket and Lay’s pillows and threw them on the ground behind him. This woke them up for sure.

 

Lay just rolled around the bed with his eyes still closed, searching for non-existent pillows while Baekhyun kept reaching for a blanket that wasn’t there. When they couldn’t find any, they both sat up, eyes still half-closed.

 

“I’m too tired,” Lay drawled out, while Baekhyun kept blinking his eyes even though there was no light on.

 

“Hey, where did…….where did the blanket gooooo…..” Baekhyun trailed of towards the end.

 

“You guys need to WAKE UP.” Luhan tossed back at their nonsense. “You guys have school, too!”

 

“We have WHAT.” Lay got off the bed as quickly as he could and started leaving the room. “Sorry, I have to go BYE GUYS!!!!”  


“WAIT FOR ME TOO!” Baekhyun jumped off the bed, already shouting at Lay in front of him. “I NEED TIME FOR MY EYELINER!!”

 

 _Not that Chanyeol would care._ Wondering why the boys weren’t asking why they were in Luhan’s room, he got to work to make his bed, sighing in relief that he was able to continue… whatever it was he was doing.

 

Since his plan failed yesterday (AGAIN for the whatever-time-now) he decided that maybe they should have a getaway weekend. Yeah, something fun, like bungee-jumping. They could invite Chen along and take pictures to shove in Suho’s face that, yes, they didn’t die.

 

_Wow, I can be sooooooo melodramatic. Whatever, I don’t care. I deserve it._

 

Because, according to Luhan, he _did._ Over the centuries, Luhan has kept feeling like he’s worthless. He wanted to change that.

But how could he do something like that when he couldn’t even muster up enough courage to kiss Sehun? Or even ask him out on a date or something?

 

Wait….. He could do that.

 

Well, not a date or anything. He can’t even say “what date is it” to Sehun without immediately getting all flustered up. Gosh, why did date have to mean so many things? The calendar, the relationship, the freaking fruit or vegetable or prune-like thingie.

 

Oh, man was he hungry.

 

That’s it! Maybe, if he hurried up, he could ask Sehun if he wanted to eat breakfast somewhere before they go to school. Just a nice breakfast shared between friends. There was no harm in that, right?

 

Just the idea of spending extra time with Sehun made Luhan be quicker than usually in organizing his stuff for today. Of course, he had to put on his makeup to be radiate and cause heads to turn. Hopefully Sehun’s as well.

 

Oh my god this was so annoying. Why did he keep on thinking of Sehun? Sehun this, Sehun that. Thank god no one in their group could read minds, cause he would be the opposite of most high school students’ homework: finished.

 

Okay, he had to think of something else. Come on Luhan, you could do this.

 

Well, he didn’t even get the chance because the clock hit 6:45, and he knew he had to get out of the house now if he wanted his plan to work.

 

By the time he reached the ground floor (ha, they couldn’t even say downstairs because of the insane amount of underground levels that _someone_ in his group wanted) he stopped dead in his tracks as D.O was right in front of him and they toppled onto the floor.

 

Oh, dear lord. Luhan could feel himself getting dizzy. Not because of the pain (he was one of them that had no pain receptors) but because of the confusion of what the heck just happened.

 

They both stayed on the ground for a few seconds before they got up, already sending murderous looks to each. However, before they said anything, Luhan suddenly felt someone pull him up, anxiously tugging at both of his arms behind his back. He tried to turn around and was also shocked to see _Sehun?_ WHAT?!

 

“Come on, Lu! I want to show you something before school starts!”

 

“Before...what?” He had no idea what was going on. (But at this point, no one did.)  


“They’re going to start arguing _again.”_ He explained. “Baekhyun and D.O have been arguing all morning and it’s getting on my nerves.”

 

“Well, then you could have left, I guess?” _Wow, I’m so helpful. Go me._

 

“No, but….uh, l’ll explain later. Now, hurry up!” Sehun kept tugging his arms, persuading Luhan to pick up the pace.

 

Luhan had no choice but to follow whatever Sehun was planning, already ditching whatever he made up in his mind earlier. Sehun weaved their way through everyone who was in the living room (Luhan’s mind was like a high school student at this point _again_ during the SAT exam - not functioning at all.)

 

Of course, as Sehun expected, Baekhyun and D.O were already in a heated match as they made their way out.

 

“I ALREADY TOLD YOU THAT IT’S NOT GOING TO WORK!!!”  
  
“WELL, LAST TIME I CHECKED, THE ONLY PERSON WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR OPINION IS CHANYEOL!”   
  
“AT LEAST SOMEONE CARES FOR MY-”

 

“Told you,” Sehun whispered in his ear. Once they were out of the house, Sehun let go of his hands. “Come on, it’s this way.”  


“May I ask where we are going.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

They stayed silent for a minute. “Well, Sehun?”  


“You said if you could ask. I’m letting you ask.”  


“What the- fine. Where are we going.”  


“Not telling you.”  


“Uh-what? Really, Sehun?”

 

“What? I didn’t do anything! Why do you always get mad at me?”

 

“I’m not! I’m just asking where we are going!”

 

“I can’t.. Uh, it’s a surprise, dummy! Now be quiet or we won’t get there in time!”

 

“UHHHH, fine!” Luhan reached out to grab Sehun’s hand, acting on impulse. He didn’t what he did until Sehun got out of his grasp.

 

“Wait, I have to show you something in my backpack.” He slung his backpack off his shoulders, unlocked the zippers, and started rummaging around for something.

 

 _Knew he was going to - wait what did he say?_   


“You… what?”

 

Sehun stopped searching and looked up to see Luhan again. “I what?”

 

“You’re…” Luhan was too embarrassed to finish his sentence, and not wanting to see Sehun ridicule him, he turned away and started walking faster down the street.

 

“HEY… LUHAN! WHAT?!” Sehun struggled to catch up with him, and by the time he was next to his side again, he put his hands on his knees, struggling for breath. “What… what-”

 

“Are you embarrassed to be seen with me,” Luhan said abruptly.

 

_Oh shoot why did I say that._

 

“What?” Sehun stared at him, wide-eyed, making sure he heard correctly. “NO! Why would you think that? That’s so unlike you, Lu.”  


“No, it’s because..” _Great what do I do?_ “Tell me where we are going.”   


Sehun still looked like he wanted to press further but let it drop for now. “It’s an underground shelter I found.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry I was late guys! I've been stressed out lately, and HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE BTS AND SERE-WHATEVER AND EXO THE WAR REPACKAGED I AM GOING TO DIE GUYS IT WAS-
> 
> No but I will update once or twice a month okay? Yehet!


	4. SSS (So Sickeningly Sweet)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pastries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long! Anyway, Luhan has a new girlfriend, BTS COMEBACK, SEVENTEEN COMEBACK, SUPER JUNIOR COMEBACK, just got into some new bands :D, I'm actually working on a novel that I hoped will be turned into a kdrama one day so yeah, I'm not dead. 
> 
> Well, KPOP makes everyone dead, so...
> 
> DID YOU SEE MY BAG if you did CLAP

Kai’s first thought was that he was starving. Like  _ starving.  _ Like, he could drop dead any minute now due to how hungry he was. 

 

It was Friday, and being the dumbest person on this planet (not EXO planet - definitely not that planet), he forgot to eat breakfast that morning.  _ Some  _ people decided to have a match today over whose lungs could sustain more screaming, and not to mention how Sehun dragged Luhan out of there all cute-looking.

 

_ Omg am I actually jealous?  _ Kai thought to himself as he sat alone on the school steps. The bell was going to ring in 30 minutes, but he didn't want to go inside yet. 

 

_ Why am I jealous of those two? As far as I know, they have been crushing on each other ever since they met, which was how long ago? Why am- _

 

_ Oh, wait. Because only those two are completely oblivious that the other one likes them. It's practically a law of physics. Or chemistry, cause that's what they got. _

 

Frustrated, Kai ruffled up his hair for the tenth time that day, which hasn't even started. So many things have been running through his mind lately, that he didn't even know where to begin. Why didn't he just laid them all on a map and throw a dart to see which one goes first, huh?!

 

_ Wait, is it envy or jealousy? What's the difference? Who cares, Taemin's never going to like me back!  _

 

You see, his problem right now is that everyone could see how everyone liked the other one, and they were  _ so  _ lucky that the object of their affection returned the feeling. Those four were just being idiots.  _ How couldn't they see that the other loved them!?!  _

 

Taemin, however, was good at hiding his emotions, according to Kai; he never knew what Tae was thinking. Well, when it came to his feelings. Ah, why was this  _ so  _ hard?!

 

Kai thought that his crush on Taemin was getting out of hand. To be honest, it started out so simple, just staring at Taemin during class and ogling his dance moves in their dancing class. Then it became something….. more. 

 

All of the sudden, he started eating at a closer distance in the cafeteria. He started taking a different route home to see him more often. He got mad when Chanyeol and Suho didn't agree to hang with Tae’s friends that one time. Over time, he wanted to be more and more close to him. However, Taemin tended to be someone who only hanged out with those who knew him. And so, Kai never thought he would get a chance.

 

That's why his initial plan that day was to ask Taemin out somewhere. Instead, as he was the dumbest person on the planet like mentioned before, he became clumsy and started shaking with nervousness as he got nearer and nearer to the love of his life. Which is why he wasn't able to move in time. 

 

_ I'm never going to get over that, will I? Oh, well. I guess everything happens for a reason. _

 

Kai felt terrible for thinking this, but in a way, he was a teeny-bit glad for those day’s events. He suddenly had an excuse to hang out with Taemin more often. 

 

Except, you know, Taemin almost dying. Because, you know, it's not a good thing if your crush dies before you got a chance to confessing.

 

_ How  _ was Kai going to confess? He wasn't going to wait forever like his friends. Just because you're immortal doesn't mean you have all the time in the world. Besides, with the number of threats increasing these past decades, he felt like he wasn't going to have enough time. If it weren't for Taemin’s ability or that mysterious guy, Kai was sure that his group would have left by now.

 

_ This is why I shouldn't be alone with my thoughts. _

 

Kai checked the time on his (now repaired) phone, showing that only ten minutes have past by. As a result, his stomach loudly growled, which only caused more discomfort. 

 

_ Ah, I'm so hungry. What am I going to do? _

 

He could always teleport home real quick and get some food, but there was a lot of people around, and frankly, Kai didn't feel like moving. At all. How was he going to get food? 

 

Without thinking, he dialed the first number he could think of. 

 

It took a couple of rings, and by the fifth one, Kai was sure he wasn't going to answer. Miraculously, he did.

 

“Hello?” the person on the receiving end responded, voice still groggy to to how early it was. “Kai? What's wrong?”

 

“Hey….. Tae. How are you?” Kai’s arm holding the phone started involuntary shaking. He started getting queasy and the hunger in his stomach was replaced with butterflies.

 

“Um…. good? Why are you calling so early?”

 

“Oh, uh…..” dang it. He called because he was hungry, and when he made the call, he wasn't hungry anymore. Now what was he going to do?

 

“Kai? You still there?”

 

“I'm…. hungry?” Kai managed to spit out.

 

“Was…. was that a question?”

 

“No it was, uh, a, uh…. statement?”

 

“Okay, now  _ that  _ was a question. Don't you try to fool me, old boy.”

 

“Who are you calling old?”

 

“Wow, you are old. You can’t even hear well either.”

 

“Fight me, Taemin. I dare you.”

 

“Not right now; I’m driving. I'll get to school in like 3 minutes.”

 

“No, wait! Give me food!”

 

_ Gosh, I sound so desperate. _

 

“Um… sure? Anything specific you want?”

 

“Anything. I could care less.”

 

“Uh, okay, I guess. See you in… five? Ten minutes, then?” With that, Kai heard the  _ click  _ of a phone being hanged up.

 

Kai sighed, putting his phone back into his pocket. All he could do now was wait. And think.

 

Oh, not that again. Anything but  _ that. _

 

To pass the time, Kai walked over to a grassy area and just started pulling handfuls of grass and tossing them to the side. A bit childish, but whatever. It wasn't like he cared.

 

Soon there were piles and piles of pulled grass all around him. And it hasn't even been five minutes. He should know; he kept turning on his phone every thirty seconds. It has been exactly four minutes and fifty-two seconds since his phone conversation with Taemin ended.

 

It took another three minutes and twenty-nine seconds for Taemin to arrive, looking handsome as always. He was dressed up nicely, he jeans and button-up shirt being ironed and tennis shoes looking brand-new (they weren't, by the way - Kai has seen him wear it a couple of times.) His hair looked wet, as if he just took a shower, the blond locks styled to the side covering the half of his left eye. In his arms there was a medium-sized white box, and a carton with four drinks and a plastic bag filled with stuff were both piled on top of the box, thankfully not smashing it. 

 

Kai didn't notice Taemin at first; he was too busy pulling the grass. He didn't see Taemin until he looked up, the blond walking towards him with a smile plastered on his face. Taemin picked up the pace until he was right in front of Kai.

 

“Hey, sorry I was late,” Taemin replied. He set the stuff down next to Kai before sitting down next to him. “I didn't know what you wanted, so I just ordered a little bit of everything. Just think of it as sampling or something, I don’t know.”

 

“Oh,” Kai merely replied. “When I said something, I meant like an apple or something, not-”   
  


“Like we both know you are totally going to get full with an apple, Jongin.”   
  


Kai made a face, not liking to be called Jongin. However, they were in public, so it’s not like he could ask Taemin to call him that. People might get suspicious. 

 

_ Nosy people these days. Like being stuck to their phones isn’t enough.  _

 

“Anyway,” Taemin continued. “Here. Let me show you.” He took off the carton with drinks and the plastic bag off the box and opened it, revealing what was inside. There was pretty much a variety of everything to be exact; wild berry and chocolate muffins, stacks of cookies (which he hoped weren’t oatmeal raisin), turnovers and crepes with the fillings spilling at the sides. All of it looked scrumptious and ready to be consumed. 

 

Kai reached into the box and pulled out a crepe, ripping it in half to see what was inside. The filling was glossy red, with pieces of fruit scattered everywhere. He licked it and discovered it to taste like wild cherry. With that, he got enough courage to take a bite of one of the halves. 

 

It was  _ marvelous.  _ The dough was cooked just right, the outside golden and flaky but not burned, the filling being super sweet but not too overpowering. The fruit in the filling was fresh and soft but firm. The whole pastry was so delicious and mouth-watering that he just slammed both halves into his mouth, taking his time chewing. 

 

When he finished, all he could manage to say to Taemin was “It’s delicious.”   
  


“Yeah, I could see that,” Taemin merely responded. He was munching on a cookie, which appeared to have white chocolate and nuts on it. He was taking small bites as if to savor it. 

 

Kai suddenly felt embarrassed for the act he just committed. He was acting like he hasn’t eaten any breakf-

 

Oh, wait. He didn’t. That’s why Taemin brought all these desserts in the first place. 

 

He forgot that he was still staring at Tae when he responded, “What? I want a cookie, too.”   
  


“Oh, I’m.. no, it’s not that,” Kai said, turning his face away to not meet his gaze. However, his desire for another piece of bread won him over, and so he reached over and grabbed a muffin this time, one that had chocolate chips and a chocolate drizzle on top. This time, though, he ate more slowly as to not make a fool of himself, really taking the time to taste it.

 

As expected, it was also delicious, and he finished it in no time at all. Taemin was still taking small bites on his cookie.

 

“What? Did you have breakfast already or something?” Kai asked him.

 

“I already had to taste hundreds of these last night, thank you very much. If I eat something else, I'm going to throw up.” With that, Taemin shoved the last of his cookie into his mouth and reached to grab one of the drinks on the carton. He put the plastic straw through the brown liquid and took a sip. 

 

“Wait,  _ hundreds?”  _ Kai asked in amazement. “That’s cool. Where did you get them, though? And why did you eat that many?” 

 

Taemin stopped drinking his beverage and let out a sigh. “I didn’t buy them at the store, Key made them last night.”

 

“Wait,  _ what?  _ Why? Did you make pot brownies this time and give it to him or something?”

 

Taemin just gave him a disgusted look. “I said I don’t do or take drugs, gosh. And it’s much worse than  _ that _ .”   
  


“Wait, what’s wrong with him?”

 

“He’s lovesick. He and Jonghyun don’t need pastries, they need guts to tell the other.” Taemin grabbed handfuls of his hair and started tugging them. “They’re driving me  _ crazy. _ ”

 

“Hey,” Kai said, smacking Taemin’s arms. “Don’t do that to your hair.”   
  


“Why not? Look what you did to the grass.”

 

“Well, the grass isn’t alive, so there.”

 

“Uh, one,” Taemin said, lifting up a finger. “The grass is alive. It’s an organism in the plantae kingdom. It’s in the same domain as us.”   
  


“What,” Kai said.

“Ah, come on, Jongin! With all your years of schooling, you’re going to tell me you don’t know  _ that _ ?”   
  


“Oh, yeah. How did  _ you  _ know that?”   
  


“AP bio, dummy. Second of all,” Taemin continued, lifting up a second finger. “My hair is technically dead. The-”   
  


Kai slammed his hand on Taemin this time, making him shut up. “It’s way too early in the morning for school stuff.”

 

“School starts in five minutes.” 

 

“Whatever.” Kai lied down on the steps, not caring if it caused discomfort to his dorsal side. Truth to be told, he was still hungry, but for now he just wanted to stare into the little black orbs in Taemin’s glassy eyes. 

 

Taemin took note of this, though. He squinted his eyes at Kai, wondering what tricks he was performing this time.

 

“Uh, are you still hungry? You can grab as many as you want.”

 

“No, it's fine. Didn't you bring them for someone or something?”

 

“No, silly. I already had the box on the way to school when you called. I bought them for…” he trailed off for a few seconds. “You.”

 

Kai couldn’t help but furrow his eyebrows at this statement. “Wait, what?”

 

“I thought you would like some,” Taemin stammered quickly. “My kitchen is literally covered with pastries everywhere. If you want more, just stop by.”   
  


“Oh, I can’t accept, this, I -”   
  


“Please do. Having so much is making me lose my appetite.” Taemin finished his drink and threw it in a trashcan nearby. “Just give some to the Silen- I mean your friends.”   
  


“You were about to call them the Silent 12, weren’t you?”   
  


“Well,” Taemin defended himself. “In school they’re really quiet, but the times I have been to your house, everyone is crazy. Have  _ you  _ been giving them pot brownies?”   
  


“I wish. That way I can stop it. Nah, it’s because….. I don’t know, we just are.” He got up from his lying position. “You’re friends are crazy, too. At least mine don’t make 200 pastries in one night.”   
  


“It was 438, Kai. 438 desserts that I had to help make last night because someone wanted to surprise someone today and they probably won't confess today. Since they never do.”  

 

“About that,” Kai questioned him. “What, exactly, was he planning to do with that many pieces of bread?”

 

“Well, it’s so of-” Taemin struggled to find the right words, using his hands to try and express himself. “Complicated? I guess? The original plan was to ditch last period-”   
  


“You were going to ditch dance class?”

 

“Shut up and let me finish. Anyway, me, Onew, and Minho were going to head over to Jonghyun’s house and-”   
  


“Wait. You three know that both of them are crushing on each other? And you’re still going along with their antics?”   
  


“Pretty much,” Taemin summed up. “No one is going to spill the beans for them. That’s why I agree to help him bake. Of course, he miscalculated and not to mention accidently double the recipe.”   
  


“Sucks to hear that. What was he going to do with all the pastries, though? Surprise him?”   
  


“Yeah, actually. We were going to sneak into Jonghyun’s house, spread-”   
  


“ _ Sneak in?!” _   
  


“Can you stop interrupting me for one minute, Jongin?!” Taemin exclaimed, regret appearing on his face as soon as the words came right out of his mouth. “I- never mind.” Taemin got up and dusted stray grass blades off his jeans. “I have to go. We have like one minute.”

 

“No, wait!” Kai unconsciously reached out to grab Taemin’s hand, gripping with such force at the other’s wrist that he feared might cause bruising later. “I’m sorry. Don’t leave.”   
  


“We still have to go-”   
  
“Why don’t you skip the entire day? With me?”

 

Taemin could only glance at him, and it was at this moment that Kai realized that he may have screwed up everything. This was  _ not  _ what he planned.

 

It only got worse as time grew, each second bringing more silence. 

 

They stayed there for a while, not even flinching when the bell for the school ranged until making their eyes bleed like always. It was just them outside.

 

That thought both made Kai excited and terrified. Mostly terrified, due to the lack of response from Taemin. 

 

He wasn’t even looking at Kai anymore; instead, he had his head tilted down towards his feet, appearing to be contemplating something. Contemplating what, Kai didn’t know. 

 

None of them wanted to move. They wanted to stay in this position just a little bit longer. 

 

Kai wasn’t sure, though, and he started to think that maybe there was something wrong with him. Panicking now, he let go of Tae’s hand and waved his own of Taemin’s face. 

 

“Tae? Are you okay?”   
  


“No,” he whispered. “I’m not.”   
  


“Um, what?”

 

“Nothing, it’s…. Nothing. I just……” Taemin lifted up his own hand and started rubbing circles on his forehead. “Okay. Let’s ditch.”   
  


\---

 

They had no idea where to go. 

 

With all of Key’s pastries, they eaten as much as they could, so finding a place to eat breakfast was out. As much as they were delicious, even Taemin and Kai both had their limits on how much they could eat. Sadly. 

 

Anyway, there wasn’t much that they could do until the last class. Taemin decided that he was still going to wait for Onew and Minho to set up everything, since it wasn’t much they had to do. However, that pretty much left them for nothing else to do for the next few hours. 

 

Under any normal situation, Kai would be bored out of his skull. (Yes, him and the others did have skulls, much to Tae’s amusement.) However, he was spending the day with Taemin, which gave him an unusual amount of adrenaline and creative ideas that they could do. That’s when Kai decided he could take Taemin to one of his hiding places. 

 

Since they weren’t in any hurry, they both decided to take their time walking, with Kai pulling Taemin along on their way to the forest.

 

_ Why the forest,  _ Taemin had asked him earlier. 

 

_ It’s a surprise. That’s all I’m going to tell you,  _ Kai replied back. 

 

_ Well, how do I know you aren’t going to murder me? _

 

_ You’re the one who murdered someone two days ago.  _

 

_ Shut up, Kai. _

 

_ Who knows, you might be a cannibal in an alternate life.  _

 

And that was that. 

 

If you think about, they have the weirdest conversations that you can think of. 

 

The trip to the forest did take a while, but by the time they did arrive, it was quiet and there was no sign of human life. Or so they thought. 

 

Kai, after making sure that there was absolutely no sign of anyone out there watching them, hugged Taemin from behind. Before Tae could say anything, he transported them to the underground shelter. 

 

The shelter was, for some reason, full of light instead of its usual darkness. It wasn’t until he let go of his embrace of Taemin (who was too stunned to say anything) that he was able to distinguish the fact that there were two figures in the room as well. 

 

Unfortunately for Kai, he let out a shriek before he was able to recognize their faces, which matched Luhan and Sehun. 

 

“Hey guys,” Taemin said, thankfully after Kai’s scream of fear. “What are you guys doing here?”   
  


“H-h-h-ow are-re-”   
  


“Here?” Luhan asked, turning around to stare at a quiet Sehun. “What are  _ you  _ guys doing here? Sehun, didn’t you say that no one knew about this place?”

 

“I did,” Sehun responded. “I discovered it the other day. I’m pretty sure I didn’t mention it to anyone.” He turned to face Kai. “How did you find this place?”   
  


“Dude, I’ve known of this place for  _ ages _ .” He walked over to one of the cupboards in room and opened it, revealing the water bottles and soda cans inside. He grabbed a coke and sat back down on the floor next to the other two, Taemin following suit. “When someone starts acting up, I usually just teleport here.”

 

“Oh-oh,” Sehun replied, not knowing what to do with this information. “Well, I just brought Luhan here today. Look, I swear I had no idea that-”   
  


“Sehun, it’s fine, don’t worry.” Kai drowned the rest of his coke in one go and pulled out another before throwing it to Taemin. “Here.” He turned to Sehun and Luhan. “Do you guys want one?”   
  


“No, I’m good,” they both replied at the same, then bursting into laughter as the repeatedly shouted “Jinx!” to each, all awkwardness gone. 

 

Kai just stared at Taemin, who was opening his soda can at a painstakingly slow pace. He was taking a short sip when he gazed at Kai, then raising his eyebrows as he realized Kai was staring. 

 

All Kai could do was turn away in embarrassment; he could practically feel Taemin’s eyes boring into his skull. Chanyeol might be the one with the flame power, but Kai was pretty sure that he was heating up more than Chanyeol ever could. 

 

Well, except if it’s about Chanyeol and Baekhyun, then Chanyeol would come pretty close. But still, Kai was pretty sure that the color red was spreading all over his neck. Maybe even his face. Kris and his dumb BB cream wouldn’t be able to cover it. 

 

Of course, with Kai being the coward, it was Taemin who broke the tension between them. 

 

“Hey, Sehun, Luhan,” he announced, already swinging his backpack off his back onto the ground. He took out the sickly sweet box of pastries out of his bag. “Do you guys want some pastries? Key miscalculated since he wanted to conf-”   
  


“Confess to Jonghyun? Didn’t know it would take so long,” Sehun said, already getting up from his spot on the floor to grab a piece of what appeared to a blueberry-filled churro. 

 

“Gosh, everyone knows, don’t they,” Taemin said, offering the box to Luhan who had no idea what to pick. “Luhan, just take the box.”   
  


“But, don’t-”   
  


“We made hundreds and I already stuffed myself,” Taemin bluntly said, already scrunching at the thought of throwing up if he had to eat one more. Kai couldn’t help but feel the same way. 

 

“Oh, really? What are you going to do?” Luhan asked, nibbling on a purple (purple?) donut. 

 

“Uh, Taemin, why is that donut purple?”

 

“It’s raspberry,” Taemin replied. “Anyway, we are going his house and arrange all the pastries on the floor to make a heart-”   
  


“Awwwwww! That’s so cute! Can I help?” Luhan asked, a smile on his face. 

 

“Wait! I have to help too!” Sehun shouted. 

 

“Um, okay?” Tae replied. “But it isn’t until later. I’m going to have to wait a while, so…”   
  


“There’s nothing we can do?” Kai couldn’t help but notice Luhan being awfully persistent today. 

 

“Well, there is one thing…”


	5. They are idiots

Taemin wasn’t comfortable with a group of strangers-until-recently tagging him along to Jonghyun’s house.

 

Ah, yes, lovely. This is soooo fantastic. They kept asking dumb questions (well, not really, they were just trying to know him but he didn’t really feel like telling them his 4-page autobiography; he could literally write it in under 5 minutes.) When they weren’t doing that, they were poking each other and roaming around the trees. Of course, the trip would have been cut 95% short if Kai just teleported all four of them, but since they literally had nothing else to do, the long way back was just a way to kill time. 

 

During the whole trip, though, Kai seemed to just be alone with his thoughts, although about what he was pondering about, Taemin didn’t know. Even though the Sile- he meant Kai’s friends seemed nice enough (and weird, and freaks, and a group of creep- anyways), maybe it would be better if he just laid low for awhile. 

 

Ha. Lay. Lol. 

 

Kai speaking up startled Taemin. “Ah… I wish we had the power of a mind-reader among us.”

 

“First of all, why are you speaking like that. Second, mind reader? What for?” Only Kai could be like that, even though he’s known him for, what, less than a week?

 

“None of us are mind readers, believe it or not. Most of us have powers based on the elements or some weird version of them. Of course, some of us don’t follow that pattern.” He pointed at himself with a big “duh” expression, “I, for one, have the greatest one in all of existence. It’s -” 

 

“Having a dumb IQ? I’m glad only you have it,” Taemin said with a smirk.    
  


Kai slapped his chest with a fake offended look on his face. “Taemin? After all we have been through? I can believe you would call me that.” 

 

“We have been through a lot, even though it’s only been a week.”

 

“HEY SEHUN SEHUN SEHUN SEHUN LOOK LOOK LOOK SEHUN LOOK OVER THERE SEHUN-” 

 

“YES HIS NAME IS SEHUN, LUHAN, WE GET-” Kai started to interrupt him. 

 

“What, what is it Luhan,” Sehun asked impossibly polite. 

 

“Isn’t that, that lovesick dude,” Luhan said, pointing at a mysterious figure in the distance in which Taemin could see that it was  _ Jonghyun for crying out loud.  _

  
“WHY is Jonghyun not in class?” Taemin muttered under his breath. He whipped out his phone and pressed 2 on speed dial.    
  


It took a while, but the receiver finally picked up after a few rings. “Wow, good thing I asked to go the restroom,” the receiver said quietly. Then, with a louder voice, “Hey, Tae, what’s u-”   
  


“KEY KEY KEY KEY GUESS WHAT CODE FJ9H! WE GOT A CODE FJ9H!”

 

“Is  _ everyone  _ going to repeatedly say other people’s names today?”   
  


“NO NO NO UHHH CALL MINHO I GOT ONEW PROCEDURE 94 OK PROCEDURE 94!” Both Key and Taemin hung up at the same time. 

 

“ _ What  _ was that?’ Sehun asked. “Code FJ9H? Procedure 94?”   
  


“I know it all seems weird,” Taemin started, “but it’s a code system we all invented a few years ago for when we don’t have enough time to explain the situation. The F in Code FJ9H stands for found, the J for Jonghyun, the 9 meaning the forest, H stands for haven’t been noticed yet.”

 

“Ohhhh that’s smart, actually,” Luhan replied. “So a different combination of letters stands for a different definition.” 

“What would be ‘Kai ate all the food’ be?” Sehun asked. Kai gave a scowled look on his face. 

 

“Oh, well we would have to use a different letter other than K for Kai, since it’s for Key, or J for Jongin, since that’s for Jonghyun.”   
  


“What about something for the Kim in his name?” Luhan asked. 

 

“What part of not using K do you not understand?” Kai said. 

 

“Fine, let’s just use X for unknown,” Taemin said. “Then the code would be AX9N. A for ate, x for Kai, 9 for at the forest, and N for now.” 

 

“Nice. I’m going to scream that everyday now.” 

 

“Taemin, is there one for ‘Sehun needs to die’?”

 

“KS9N.”   
  


“Guys,” Luhan interrupted them. “You know we just lost Jonghyun, right?”   
  


_ Shoot shoot shoot shoot oh no oh not now not now oh shoot no- _

 

“Ah, heck nah!!” Taemin shouted. “NOT NOW NO NO NO-”

 

“CALM DOWN!” Kai said, shoving his hands in front of Taemin’s chest. “DON’T WORRY! I, uh, I’ll teleport anywhere in a five-mile radius, I’ll tell you if I see him.” With that, Kai disappeared from his sight. 

 

“Dang it, we should of just murdered Kai instead of arguing about it!” Sehun shouted. 

 

“Hey, we were arguing about killing you,” Taemin pointed out. 

 

“Who are we killing again,” Luhan asked.

 

Kai came into their view again. “Found him. Hold on to me, but quick, he’s almost leaving the forest.”   
  


Sehun and Luhan quickly took hold of Kai’s arm. Taemin took more time, though, still uneasy about the whole teleportation thing. He barely touched Kai’s shoulders when they we taken to a different location. 

 

Sure enough, he could see Jonghyun all right, but he was still farther away. Taemin let go of his hold of Kai and started walking slowly to where Jonghyun was at. Soon enough, the rest were following his footsteps, too. 

 

It took a while, and it felt weird stalking him for the day, but he couldn’t lose sight of him. Last night, after Key clarified of his feelings of Jonghyun to everyone (no thanks to Onew, though,) he told them about his plan. Practically the whole school knew but why Jonghyun didn’t acknowledge it, Taemin didn’t know. 

 

The feeling was mutual, though. Jonghyun confessed to Taemin a while back, so they were both just stupid. That was pretty much why they were single. The whole group had a plan Z for when they got sick of it, but Taemin didn’t want to go to that extreme. 

 

The first place Jonghyun went to was a jewelry shop. Obviously, they couldn’t go in, so they stayed in the store in front of the shop while staring out the window. When Jonghyun came back out, he had a little bag in which he threw aways after taking out the contents: a small, blue ring box. He put it carefully in his pocket where it would be tucked in safely.

 

“Wait, does that have a ring!?” Luhan exclaimed. “Is he going to propose?!”   
  


“Luhan, why would he propose,” Kai said. 

 

“I don’t know,” he muttered. “I wish I could get proposed.”   
  


“You will,” Sehun said to calm him down. “Don’t worry, you will.”   
  


“It might be a promise ring, you know, since prom is a month away,” Taemin pointed out. “Kibum said he was going, so Jonghyun might ask him as his date.”

 

“That actually makes more sense,” Kai said. “Wait, where is he going now?”

 

They got out of the store and followed Jonghyun into a bakery, who came out later with a box of pastries. 

 

“Did he really just buy pastries,” Taemin said with a dead look on his face. “Key’s plan isn’t going to work now. I feel like we should just head on to plan Z.”

 

“What’s plan Z,” Kai questioned him. 

 

Taemin gave him a look. “I’m not telling you, it would ruin the fun.”

 

“But I’m a fun person,” Kai said, trying to defend himself. 

 

Taemin’s phone rang again, so he picked up. It was Minho, trying to see how stalking Jonhyun was going. 

 

“Hey, Tae, you haven’t lost him, right? Key just went to Jonghyun’s house with Onew to set up the plan.”   
  


“No, it’s not going to work.Jonghyun bought a ring and a box of pastries so far, and he just walked into a clothing store.”   
  


“He just what now?” Minho groaned on the other side of the line. “Hell no! I didn’t suffer last night for him to get store bought! Taemin, plan Z! NOW”

 

“Your basement, right?”   
  


“Yeah, sure. See you quick.” With that, Minho hanged up.

 

“What’s plan Z,” Kai asked again.

 

“You’ll see,” Taemin replied. “Guys, go to Minho’s house. Tell him you are with me. I’ll be there in a bit.”

 

“Wait, where are you going,” Sehun asked, confused by Taemin’s orders. “Why are we going to Minho’s house?”

 

“What’s his basement for,” Luhan added. 

 

“Just go. He’ll explain everything.” He turned to Kai. “I’ll text you the address.” 

 

“No, wait, I’m going with you,” Kai replied. 

 

Taemin sighed, seeing no point in arguing. “Okay, but Luhan, give me your phone.”

 

Luhan handed it to him. Taemin only punched in a few things before handing it back. “I put in his address in the GPS. Don’t get lost.”   
  


Luhan nodded and grabbed Sehun’s hand. “Come on, Sehun! I’m curious.” Sehun nodded as well before they turned away from Kai and Taemin. 

 

“They’re practically dating by now,” Taemin replied before going into the store where they saw Jonghyun walked in.

 

“Wait, where are you going!?” Kai shouted, trying to catch up with him. (Why did he have to be in public?!)

“To Jonghyun. He has to go to Minho’s house.”   
  


“Wait, he’s going, too?! What’s going on?!”

 

Taemin sighed. “Okay, so Minho was able to record a video clip of Kibum talking about his crush on Jonghyun. He was complaining of why Jonghyun couldn’t see his motives or something, but anyways, Minho made sure Key didn’t notice and edited it so that it looked like he was just confessing.”

 

Kai nodded, egging him to go on.

 

“Anyways, he also did the same to Jonghyun, who was practically complaining about the same thing. Then he also recorded him, Onew, and I saying how stupid both of them were. He edited the clips so that it could be one long video, with us in the beginning, then Jonghyun’s confession, a 10-second pause, then Key’s confession.”

 

“That sounds really evil.” Kai shook his head. “You’re going to show them the video, right?”

 

“Yeah, so we are going to lock them in Minho’s basement.”   
  


“Oh, okay, that makes sense.” Kai just stared at his hands. “If only life could be that simple.”   
  


“Yeah, well, life is a big quadratic formula.” Taemin found Jonghyun in the men’s clothing area, who was looking at some button-up shirts. His eyes widen when he saw them. 

 

“Taemin, what are you doing here? Why are you ditching class?”   
  


“Jonghyun,” Taemin said. “Don’t be a hypocrite.”   
  


Jonghyun raised his hand up, the other holding the box. “Okay, you got me. But what are you doing? Did something happen?”

 

“Something is going on with Key,” Taemin lied, “so he’s at Minho’s house right now. We need to go now.”

 

“Kibum?!” Jonghyun’s voice was filled with worry now. “What happened?! Is he okay?! Did-”

 

“He’s sort of fine-”

 

“Sort of?!”   
  


“But he’s sick, so you need to come  _ now.”  _ He grabbed Jonghyun’s free hand and pulled him out of the store. 

He kept questioning him the entire way back. What happened, was he okay, how they found him, what was the same Silent 12 member with them. Taemin refused to answer anything, so the walk back ended up being silent. 

 

Kai was really curious on how things were going to play out.

 

\----

 

Kibum was really anxious in Minho’s house. Why they were at Minho’s house, he didn’t know. 

 

Minho told him that Onew went to pick up whatever Kibum was going (Key was almost done setting the pastries on the floor, and now he can’t finish it.) Minho was in his basement doing something, which he didn’t bother to explain. 

 

He was trying not to freak out when he heard the doorbell ring. He got up from the couch, expecting it to be Onew, but was greeted with-

 

No. 

 

Jonghyun?!   
  


“Oh my gosh, Kibum, you’re safe.” Jonghyun hugged him really tight, letting Kibum to process whatever was going on to himself. 

 

“Wait, safe? What the hell, Jonghyun, nothing is wrong with me.” He didn’t get out of the hug, though, because.. You know. 

 

Jonghyun got out of the embrace, though. “Wait, nothing? Taemin said that something happened to you!”

 

Key was confused. What was going on, now?

 

“Hey, Jonghyun, Key, come down here!” Minho shouted from the stairs. “I need to guys to do something!”   
  


Key shrugged and headed to the basement, not knowing what Minho wanted. Jonghyun followed him, also confused. 

 

They were walking down the stairs when they heard the door shut and the lights turned off, with only a soft glow from the basement.

 

“Hey, open the door!” Jonghyun shouted. “What are you guys doing?”   
  


“Just go down!” Kibum heard a voice which appeared to be Taemin’s.  _ Wait, Taemin? When did he get here? _

 

They reluctantly followed, and what Kibum saw made him stop. 

 

There was a small table with only two objects on it: a small, lit candle and a blue box. Around the table was a heart formed with a lot of pastries.    
  


“Oh, no,” Jonghyun muttered, Kibum feeling the same way. 

 

_ What did they do? _

 

_ I didn’t even get to put on my best clothes! I can’t ask him out like this! _

 

Suddenly, the flat screen TV that Minho never used turned on. On the screen, it was a video with Minho, Onew and Taemin.

 

“Hey, you guys are stupid!” Minho on-screen said, the other two nodded. 

 

“You owe us a thanks, by the way. I want some fried chicken in return,” Onew added. 

 

“Yeah, just no more pastries for a while,” Taemin said. 

 

Kibum couldn’t move. This was  _ not  _ happening.

 

The video then switched to a recording of Jonghyun. It appeared to have been taken in his bedroom. 

 

“I’ve been in love with Kibum,” he was saying on screen. “For years. I just don’t know how to tell him.”

 

Someone muttered something about him being hopeless, probably Minho. 

 

“He’s just amazing,” Jonghyun continued on the screen, already looking at his phone. He then shoved it to whoever was recorded. “Look, he’s just too gorgeous! And his smile is brighter than my future. He’s so nice and loyal and has a good fashion sense, as much as I tease him for it. I want him to be my boyfriend.”   
  


The video ended. 

 

Key didn’t dare to look at the Jonghyun next to him. “Uh, Key?” Jonghyun started, trying to explain. “I, uh, really don’t know wha-”

 

The TV turned on again, this time with a recording of Key in his room. He knows exactly when this was - he was arguing to Minho about his advances with Jonghyun that day. 

 

“I’m in love with Jonghyun,” Kibum on-screen was saying. “I’m tired of trying to make him like me back. I really don’t want to confess because I’m afraid of him rejecting me, but at this rate, I just have to let him know what I feel about him. He’s just too amazing. He’s sweet, he respects me, and the way he looks at me with those  _ eyes,  _ I just can’t handle it.”

 

That video ended, too. 

 

“So, uhhh…” Jonghyun tried to make things less awkward. “I guess neither of us got to confess?”

 

“Yeah, those idiots did it for us,” Kibum replied. “So, uhhhh….”

 

He didn’t finish what he was saying since he felt Jonghyun’s lips press down on his own, his hand holding onto his chin and tilting it. And honestly, who needed to finish sentences, anyways? This was so much better. Screw sweets, Jonghyun is sweet enough. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if the so-4-more notes pop up ignore them. I don't know how to take them off. Ignore any errors, I couldn't edit it. 
> 
> Yeah, soooo..... the december thing... I hope you guys are doing okay. I read the past chapters and my writing has been sooooo much better, so it was really cringey, but the guilt was eating me up so, yeah. 
> 
> My sister bought three signed photos of shinee, one of Jonghyun with his signature, one with Jonghyun and Key with their autographs, and a 5-member photo with all their autographs. At least we have something of his now. 
> 
> SHINee members, both on earth and heaven, I hope you are doing okay.


	6. Awkwardness in the Air

It was a bit awkward when the couple finally left the basement (Onew unlocked it as soon as the video ended.) Five minutes went by and they still didn’t hear anything from Jonghyun and Kibum, so Minho slammed his hand on the door, telling them they better be only kissing and not be doing anything else that resulted in cleanup. Key shouted back by saying he was going to have to clean-up his house after he was done dealing with Minho, leaving him to run to his kitchen to lock up the knives when Jonghyun and Key finally emerged, faces red, hair messed up, and them gasping for air.

 

Sehun smiled, knowing it was nice for the couple to have gotten together at least (even though how they got together was a bit….questionable.) Nonetheless, the two didn’t question why three random people were there (Sehun, Luhan, and Kai.) Maybe because they were too busy staring into each other’s eyes, not that it mattered.

 

The group all went into living room together to hang out, having completely forgotten that today was a school day and that they just all ditched class. Jonghyun quickly ran back to the basement for a minute, and when he came back up, he had the same blue box.

 

“Sorry, Key, I forgot to tell you that I was going to give you this,” he said, opening the ring box to reveal what was inside: a small, silver ring with two tiny diamonds and with the engravings of two Ks.

 

Jonghyun reached out his palm, waiting for Key to take hold of it. When Key did, Jonghyun slipped the ring through Key’s right ring finger and let go, both of them smiling and faces red.

 

“Um, Key,” Jonghyun stuttered out. “I’ve, uh, also have been, um, been wanting, I’ve been-“

 

“ _Anything_ ,” Key whispered out.

 

“WOULD YOU GO TO PROM WITH ME?!” Jonghyun shouted. “Uh, sorry, that’s not, uh-“ Key shut him up by pecking his cheek.

 

“Of course, dummy!” Key gave a him a peck on his mouth. “Did I not just agree to be your boyfriend 5 minutes ago?”

“And yet, now you’re being disgusting,” Onew commented. “I’m not sure what’s worse, seeing two people mutually pin each other, or seeing the two of them being all lovey-dovey and gross.”

 

“Yeah, get a room,” Taemin said, laughing at Onew’s comment.

 

“Well, we _did_ have our own room until the two of you kicked us out!” Jonghyun said. He did have a point. “ _AND_ you guys locked us in there and put the video on in the first place! So stop being a group of hypocrites and let me make out with my boyfriend!” He then proceeded to stuck his tongue down his boyfriend’s throat, and the two started making out.

 

“You see, there are some things that I never needed to see,” Taemin said. “Like that.”

 

Key just flipped him off, mouth not leaving Jonghyun’s.

 

“Well, that was the first time I got to play cupid,” Minho said. He turned to face Taemin next to him. “What couple is going to be next? Hmmmm….”

 

Taemin turned to face at Sehun and Luhan. “Hmmmm… I don’t know. When will they confess? It's not healthy to keep bottled up all your feelings for someone else."

 

Three people in the room choked on those words.

 

****

 

“Do you think those two minded,” Luhan asked him later as they were walking back home.

 

Sehun shrugged, not even sure if the other two took note of their presence. Actually, scratch that, they barely noted their own friends in the room. Kai could have robbed the TV and Jonghyun and Key wouldn’t have noticed a thing. The fact they were in Minho’s house made everything funnier.

 

“Anyways.” Luhan started skipping, with Sehun having to walk a bit faster to match up with Luhan’s pace. “Hey, what were Baekhyun and D.O arguing about, earlier? Something about not working? I thought Baekhyun thought we could go back?”

 

“No, they were arguing about the D.A.S group and.. how to handle them and some stuff. You know, the old typical battle plans.”

 

“Oh.” The D.A.S group was not a better topic of conversation. “Well, whatever the enemy is, we can handle them, I’m sure of it.”

 

Luhan’s optimism was one of his best qualities in Sehun’s opinion.

 

Suddenly, as soon as he started, Luhan stopped skipping, eyes widening in realization. “Sehun… we didn’t tell the others where we we’re going to be.”

 

“Maybe Kai told them. He was ditching class, too. And so were Taemin’s friends.”

 

“Yeah, but…. That doesn’t explain us, though.”

 

“Well, they didn’t pay attention to us when we stormed off, and they haven’t sent any messages to my phone, so I think they aren’t worried.”

 

“Do you think Kris and Suho are making out in the kitchen, again?” Luhan giggled.

 

“Ewww, gross, whatever those two do in their free time shouldn’t involve me.”

 

“Ah, come one, Sehun.” Luhan pouted. “Don’t tell me you don't believe in romance.”

 

“It doesn’t matter if I believe in it or not, it depends on whether I’m willing to give a chance or the other person too.”

 

“Is there another person,” Luhan quizzed him. “I didn’t know you had feelings for someone-“

 

“I don’t,” Sehun spoke too quickly. “There is no one else.”

 

Luhan squinted at Sehun. “Okay, then. I guess.”

 

Why did Sehun feel like he gave the wrong answer?

 

****

Kai was in his room sleeping when he felt the sunlight pass from his window. _Stupid sun,_ he thought as he pulled the covers to wrap his head.

 

Wait. He didn’t have a window in his room.

  
Startled, he sat up from the place he was sleeping, sighing when he realized he was sleeping in Taemin’s living room on their sofa. _Oh, yeah, we chilled Friday night,_ he reminded himself.

 

He groaned, not wanting to get up from his comfortable spot. Last night was a bit of a blur – they left Minho’s house after a while (Key and Jinghyun stopped paying attention to everyone a long time ago), went to see some movies or something, and then went to Taemin’s house for video games or something. Kai must have passed out or something, because he was still wearing his jeans and shirt from earlier.

 

Speaking of which – were was Taemin?

 

( _You slept at your crushes house, Kai. Get a hold of yourself, you’re a really lame person.)_

 

He took the covers off him and looked around the house trying to find his friend. (Why were they calling each other friends so quick? Was Taemin going through PTSD? Or thought it was dream? Kai knew that was a serious matter, and why Taemin was acting strange, he didn’t know.)

 

The clock on the living room caught his eye – 12:23 PM. Dang, was he really out for a long time? What time did he even go to sleep, anyways?

 

After checking the entire first floor of the house (not even his parents were here – huh. Did they work? But it was a Saturday…), Kai decided to check out the second floor.

 

He headed up the stairs when he heard the sound of water; someone must be showering. Ah, that explained Taemin’s disappearance.

 

He reached the top of the stairs and walked into Taemin’s bedroom where he remembered he left his phone charging the night before. It was right beside Taemin’s nightstand, just where he left it. He turned it on, relieved that it was fully charged. He disconnected it and started replying to his messages (most of them were from Baekhyun, Chen, Suho, Kris, and one from Lay, surprisingly) when he heard a door open.

 

He turned his head around to see Taemin in the bathroom entrance, towel wrapped his waist.

 

_That body was gorgeous._

“Oh, hey, you’re up,” Taemin said, a lovely smile forming on his face. “Sorry, I woke up like half an hour earlier and I didn’t want to wake you, so I decided to take a quick shower.”

 

He couldn’t speak. He was sure that his face was turning red, visible through his tanned skin. He tried opening his mouth, but it just stayed open with no words coming out.

 

“Hey, you okay?” Taemin stopped smiling ( _nooooo please bring back your smile, please smile again_ ) and started frowning. “Do you have a fever- wait, can you even _get_ a fever? You know, since you said-“

 

“It’s just hot in here!” Kai screamed. “I’m not used to this heat in your house, you know, since my place is always at freezing temperatures.”

 

“Well, um, okay.” Taemin walked over to his closet and pulled out a white t-shirt and frayed jeans. He grabbed a pair of boxers from his drawer. “Well, turn down the heat from the thermostat downstairs, it in the hallway. Oh, and feel free to grab whatever you want from the fridge for breakfast. I haven’t eaten anything yet, but I’m sure there’s some rice balls in there or even Key’s stupid pastries in a cabinet. Dang, I don’t think I want to eat sugar anymore.” Taemin locked himself back into his bathroom.

 

Kai started taking deep breaths. The house wasn’t warm, dang it. Was he not wrapped in blankets a few minutes ago? Of course, Taemin didn’t know this, so Kai went downstairs as he was told and turned it down a few degrees. Whether he shivered or not, oh well, he deserved it for being an idiot.

 

Since he was given permission, he decided to raid Taemin’s fridge to see what he could eat. There were the rice balls, as he had mentioned before, and he was sick of all that glucose, so he grabbed the small, white container with the rice balls and closed the fridge. He set it on the counter and started to open the cabinets, trying to remember where the hell the plates were.

 

He had already warmed a plate of the rice balls and had it set on the table where he was now rummaging for chopsticks.

 

“Hey, Kai.” He whipped around and saw Taemin, who was now changed into the clothes he had grabbed earlier. “Oh, you already served some rice balls for yourself. Are there any left?”

 

“Yeah, um,” Kai pointed to the counter where he still had the container. “There’s some in there, still. I only grabbed, like half.”

 

Taemin nodded, already heading to the cabinets to grab a plate. He then served himself the rest of the rice and set the plate in the microwave, already dumping the empty container in the dishwasher for later.

 

Kai grabbed the chopsticks he had and went to sit at the table, though he didn’t eat anything yet since he wanted to wait for Taemin, who was just slouching against the counter while on his own phone. The noise that the microwave made when it was done scared him, though, as he jumped and almost dropped his phone.

 

“Oh my, Taemin, you still get scared of the microwave? That’s just hilarious,” Kai told him, already grinning.

 

“You do realize that I can kill you, right,” Taemin muttered under his breath.

 

“What, pulverize me? Chanyeol can burn me to flames, too, you know.”

“I meant that we have knives in the kitchen, too, but how you want to die can be totally up to you if you want,” Taemin replied back.

 

“Oh, so now I’m going to be stabbed. What a lovely sight.” Kai picked up his chopsticks, still deciding whether he should start eating or not; he didn’t want to be seen as rude after all. Not that it mattered anyways, since Taemin came back down to sit with him, cheeks already stuffed with 2 rice balls.

 

“Dang, you must be hungry,” Kai commented, already picking up a rice ball and stuffing it into his mouth.

 

It took Taemin about a minute to chew and swallow. “Well, you do realize it’s past noon, right? I need my daily calorie intake.”

 

“Oh, so now you are starting to care about the amount of calories you get? You do realize that the amount of food you eat in a day is what most people eat in a week?”

 

“But you eat the same amount as me,” Taemin pointed out.

 

“Well, that doesn’t count,” Kai stated, the two of them continuing to munch on their rice balls.

 

***

 

“Hey. Hey babe, babe,” Kris said, poking Suho’s face.

 

Suho was fast asleep in Kris’s room, the two of them talking the entire time last night before Suho started getting tired. Even though Suho’s room was a level before (Kris was 19, Suho was 20), Kris asked his boyfriend the night before if he wanted to stay with him. Suho mumbled a “yeah sure” before crashing his head against Kris’s warm pillow, already knocked out.

 

Of course, that was around 1 am. It’s been 12 hours since Suho fell asleep, and now he wasn’t waking up, which was unusual for him.

 

Kris tried again. “Suho. Hey, sweetie, hey, wake up. Suho.” He started poking Suho’s chest. “Wake up, Suho. You’re going to get mad later knowing that I let you sleep this long.”

Suho remained unresponsive.

 

“Well, I guess I have no other choice.” Kris leaned down to give his boyfriend a kiss. The other didn’t kiss back.

 

“Weird. You would always morph that into your dream,” Kris exclaimed.

 

He sighed. Knowing all of the recent events that have occurred lately, Suho (or Junmyeon – Kris liked to tease him using his fake name) had been really stressed lately. Usually, he drinks tea to calm down his nerves, but he drank like five cups yesterday; he even went out and bought some outside when he went for a walk later, knowing perfectly well he drank the entire kettle back home. This was getting ridiculous.

 

Kris was getting desperate. He didn’t remember Suho drinking any medication for sleep; not that it would have worked, anyways, human medications don’t work on them.

 

“Well, stay mad at me all you want!” Kris shouted. Suho must be ignoring him, especially after their heated debate yesterday. Kris would have preferred a heated make out instead.

 

He stormed out of the room and went to the ground level living room, where Chen and Baekhyun were already watching TV.

 

“Let’s do something today. Right now,” he said.

 

Chen looked at him in surprised. “Now? Just us three?”

 

“Let me ask Chanyeol!” Baekhyun shouted, standing up from where he was sitting on the floor. “I think he’s in his room.” He quickly ran off to wherever Chanyeol was.

 

“Wait, why do you suddenly care,” Chen asked. “You like to ignore everyone.”

 

“Because I’m in a bad mood!” Kris bluntly screamed.

 

“Dang, okay!” Chen said, waving his hands in front of him. “I can see that, thank you very much. By the way, what do you have in mi-“

 

“I want to go to the movies,” Kris replied, pulling out his phone already to see on what movie showings were available.

 

“Yeah, put horror, I want to see Baekhyun cry. He ruined my cereal this morning!” Chen exclaimed. Kris merely nodded.

 

A few minutes later, Baekhyun appeared again with Chanyeol in tow, as promised. The four of them proceeded to leave, deciding to head to the plaza where they did indeed pick a horror flick.

 

It went okay, Kris supposed. He couldn’t enjoy the film, though, not even bothering to pay attention to the flesh being ripped on screen, Baekhyun’s whimpering with Chanyeol comforting him, or Chen’s laughter. No, he couldn’t enjoy anything.

 

It’s been three hours since they left the stupid house and Suho still hasn’t even bothered to text him back. Hell, they’ve been dating 356 years, dang it, why was Suho giving him the cold shoulder? Suho has always known Kris’ opinion on certain topics and not once has he ever cared, why now?

 

“Kris, you okay?” Chanyeol asked, arm wrapped around a scared Baekhyun’s shoulder, who was still shaking after what they just saw.

 

“This dude won’t pay attention to me!” Kris shouted. “You know what, I’m going to ignore him, too! Watch him crawl back to me!”

“Dang, Kris, why are you so mad,” Chanyeol asked. “Did something hap-“

 

“He has never gone without telling me good morning, no matter how mad he is!” Kris shouted, some pedestrians already looking at them wondering if a brawl was going to break out. “If he keeps up with these silly antics-“

 

“Silly and Suho don’t belong in the same sentence,” Chen replied.

 

“Is that why we came to the movies? You wanted to see if he asked for you?” Baekhyun asked. Kris nodded. “Then why don’t you just go back home and confront him about it? It’s not that hard.”

 

“Neither is confessing your feelings, and yet here we are,” Chen replied back, Chanyeol giving him a dirty look.

 

“Sometimes you need to learn to shut up,” Baekhyun told Chen.

 

“He better be begging for forgiveness by the time we go home,” Kris muttered under his breath.

 

Chen was going to reply with something dirty to lighten the mood, but after seeing the scowl in Kris’ face, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

 

They had an awkward walk home. Baekhyun and Chanyeol were the only ones who spoke, and even then it was only to each other in hushed voices since they didn’t want to piss him off any further. Kris had the most patience with Suho, and if Suho was making him mad, there was no saying what Kris would do to them.

 

By the time they arrived home, Kai, Xiumin, Luhan, Tao, and D.O were all in the ground level living room, all sporting worried looks on their faces.

 

Tao was the first one to speak up. “Where have you guys been? Did you not reply to our messages?”

“No, we shut off our phones since we went to the movies,” Chanyeol replied. He frowned. “Wait, what’s going on?”

“It’s Suho,” Xiumin replied, a few tears already running down his cheeks. “Lay wanted to see him so he found him in Kris’ room. He wouldn’t wake up, and that’s when we noticed that he stopped breathing in his sleep. Lay is trying to-“

 

Kris didn’t bother to hear the rest of Xiumin’s sentence. He grabbed onto Kai. “Take me to where he is _now!!_ ”

 

Kai didn’t hesitate to teleport with Kris to the infirmary where Lay was trying to bring Suho back to life.


	7. Essence

Lay knew everyone was under stress. Heck, even he’s been under so much pressure these past few days, trying to collect as much evidence as possible and connect the clues together without everyone screaming down his throat for being so useless and hopeless. But nothing, he repeats, _nothing_ , could have compared to knowing that someone’s life depending on how fast, efficient and accurate you worked.

 

This was a living hell.

 

He was stuck in the research room all day, trying to figure out how someone managed to manipulate Taemin’s genome. This was like some next-level engineering right here. The bases had all been altered and his number of chromosomes and other organelles in his cells had been changed, giving Taemin his ability to pulverize things into dust. The question, Lay was trying to solve among others things, was what else has been changed. Could Taemin also not get human diseases anymore? Would he age slower, or stop aging all together? Where the effects irreversible?

He wanted to invite Taemin over to their place again so that he could help Lay figure all of this out. Of course, he needed to ask Suho before he did anything irrational, so he went to Suho’s room to find him. The room looked like it wasn’t inhabited all night, so Lay did the next thing and went to Kris’ room, thinking Suho must have spent the night with his boyfriend. When he saw Suho asleep, Lay thought it was strange considering how early Suho always rose every morning. Nonetheless, he decided to check on him later.

 

Later did come, and Suho was not awake. Lay became to grow restless and wanted to wake up Suho himself, but that’s when Suho’s physical appearance alarmed him – pale, beads of sweat covering his entire face, and his chest wasn’t moving at all.

 

Lay started panicking. They _never_ got illnesses like a cold or pneumonia. Yet here Suho was, looking like he was going through some intense pain and yet didn’t appear to be suffocating, even though he wasn’t breathing, which should have meant-

 

No. He refused to be negative now.

 

He knew he had to stay calm. He _had_ to stay calm if he wanted Suho to be okay again, so he screamed for the others, just _anyone_ to come down and help him take Suho to the infirmary so that he could figure out what the hell was going on.

 

Tao, Xiumin and Sehun came, all confused with Lay’s sudden shouting. When they took note of Suho, however, they all started freaking out as well until Lay gave them orders – carry him, set up the bed for him, where the hell was Kai they could _totally_ use his help right now, wait they didn’t need him anymore, set up the breathing machine, all that stuff.

 

Being hooked up to an assortment of machines was never a good sight. And yet here Suho was, before their eyes, in this condition. Suho, who never put himself in a risky position, who always took care of himself and didn’t try to argue with anyone (unless it was them being stupid), who has never revealed their location to the D.A.S group. _This_ was the same man who was going to lose his life before them?

 

Where the hell was Kris anyways? How could he not know the condition that his boyfriend, _their leader,_ was in? Did they have a fight? Was it so bad that Suho attempted to do something to himse-

 

No, stop Lay! You promised to stop thinking so negative! Save Suho first, and then be all pessimist and depressed you wanted to be later!

 

Lay spent the entire hour trying his best to save Suho. Used a certain spell, an enhancer, some engineered product from EXO planet. It wasn’t going to be enough, though. Suho wasn’t producing the results that he should have.

 

Lay couldn’t handle it. He told Xiumin and Tao to leave to stay in the living room upstairs with everyone else. Their eyes broke Lay’s heart; how sad they looked, wondering if this was the last time they were going to see their leader alive.

 

Lay didn’t have the heart to tell them that Suho has already been dead.

 

“Guys… please need. I need to concentrate to bring him back to life.”

 

Tao and Xiumin started crying, nodding before they left the room to alert the others the situation. Sehun also had tears in his eyes, which for someone who never showed emotion, was quite heartbreaking to see.

 

Lay had to try his best. They all needed Suho.

 

****

The next hour was a blur.

 

When Tao and Xiumin went upstairs, they found Luhan and D.O and told them the news. Kai came a bit later, having spent his time with that Taemin, and they also told him as well. Everyone started to internally blame themselves.

 

They didn’t know where the others have gone. They couldn’t reach them. They just couldn’t.

 

When the others finally came sometime later, that’s when Tao and Xiumin confronted them on their whereabouts, why choosing this precise moment to be unreachable. The others, wherever they went, already appeared to be in a bad mood, and when they heard what happened, they got even worse. Kris looked angry before, but he was _pissed_ at that moment, demanding Kai to take him to the infirmary. Chen, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun tried to ask an array of questions to the others, but no one had the answers.

 

Lay desperately wanted to kick Kris out of the room, but knowing the other never listened to what he said anyways, he tried to ignore him as he continued working on what he was doing. He couldn’t exactly do it either – Suho was really close to Kris, heck, Kris was his _loved one._

 

Kris was freaking _enraged_ when he saw Suho’s condition. Then he fell down on his knees and brought his arms to his face, sobbing, getting his face wet with tears, sniffling, speaking uncoherent sentences where you could only make out “Suho”, “I thought”, “ok”, and “love”. Sehun went to sit down next to him and gave Kris a hug, who didn’t respond and kept crying.

 

Ten minutes went by when Kris stopped crying, removing his hands from his face when he saw that the special monitor Lay had set up started beeping again.

 

He widen his eyes, even though he couldn’t see anything since he had tears in his face. “Lay, did you, is he-“

 

Yes, Suho did come back to life. However, Lay looked like he was going to drop dead any moment, his face was an ugly gray, his arms shaking and his eyes really cloudy. Lay tried to speak, but nothing came out of his mouth, and then he did drop to the floor.

 

Sehun shouted, trying to call the others to come down, saying what good was it to save someone if someone else was going to die. The room filled up quickly, already knowing what happened to Lay – he used so much of his energy trying to save Suho that it actually started draining, his essence going away until he finally brought Suho back to life. This has only happen once before, when Luhan got stabbed, so they repeated the actions they have done last time – place him on the bed, set up another monitor for him, give him some weird serum thing until Lay’s color came back to his face.

 

Two of them were in coma. They were not going to be in a good mood these upcoming days.

 

***

 

Two days past. Lay woke up from his unconscious state, receiving thanks and condolences from everyone else.

 

Not that he cared. He didn’t do it for them. He did it for Suho. Suho, Baekhyun and Kai were the only ones who cared about him after all.

 

***

 

It had been five days. Five days since he had last seen his boyfriend awake. And in those five days, Kris has slept for maybe five hours.

 

The weekend was ruined, and they missed 3 days of school. Xiumin told everyone that they had to go back on Thursday before the school got suspicious, to which they reluctantly agreed.

 

They all had murderous looks on their faces. Even Taemin’s friends became scared of them again, even after they had spent Friday with three of the Silent 12. No one knew what was going on.

 

After Kai left Saturday afternoon, Taemin didn’t hear from him again until Tuesday, to which Kai replied that Suho was in a dire situation and they were all uneasy. Taemin didn’t know what had happen to the man, but he didn’t attempt to talk to Kai, knowing he needed his space. He spent most of his days with Minho and Onew, Key and Jonghyun always absent because they were doing who-knows-what.

 

The S12 came to school Thursday, but not everyone present. It didn’t take Taemin long to find out that three of them were missing – Kris, Suho, and Lay. It didn’t take long for the school to find out either.

 

The Silent 12 were going to give him the silent treatment for a long time.

 

***

 

After a week, it was finally spring break for two weeks.

 

They stayed locked in their rooms all 14 days.

 

***

 

Two days before they had to go back to school. Kris was in his usual spot – sitting on a chair next to Suho’s bed, his arms and head on his bed as he was fast asleep, clutching to Suho’s arm.

 

3 days earlier, Suho squeezed his hand back, which was a little sign other than the monitor that Suho, _his Suho_ , was still alive. He felt so guilty after having those thoughts of him that terrible Saturday. His boyfriend was sick, losing his life, while Kris got dramatic and went to the movies without him. How pathetic.

 

All sorts of memories have been going through his head these past few weeks.

 

When they first met back in EXO planet. They had originally been two distinct group, one from the K region and the other from the M region. Chanyeol and Baekhyun from region K met Chen and Xiumin from region M and discovered how similar their goals were. They each talked to their respective leader for plans of a union, so all 12 met in that warehouse. Kris had been so captivated by Suho and was absolutely _delighted_ that Suho was the leader for them. That gave him an excuse to become more close to him.

 

When he admitted to himself that he had a crush on him after denying it for so long. It had been some time since they have arrived to Earth, and Suho and Kris were just sitting on the river bank, Suho with his eyes close and basking in the sun. Kris realized that this was the man that he wanted to spend the rest of his time with.

 

When he confessed. Suho was scolding him on some plan gone wrong, where four of the group got injured, although it wasn’t that serious. He told Kris that he had no goals, which was why they were failing. Kris shouted back that he did indeed have one goal. After Suho saying “Well what is it?” all sarcastically, Kris pulled Suho into a kiss, ecstatic that the other was kissing him back, and then he pulled away and said “to make you mine.”

 

When they first made love. They were vacationing somewhere in current-day Shanghai. Suho was scared but let Kris do it to him. They lasted a lovely three hours before Kris set up a bubble bath for him and laid him down on their shared bed, Suho falling asleep resting his head on Kris’ chest.

 

When they were discovered. Kris was giving Suho lovely pecks when Sehun and Luhan had the audacity to walk in on them. They hadn’t been discovered in so long, it was surprising when they were.

 

When they announced it to everyone. No one acted surprised, meaning all of Suho’s worrying was for nothing. The only thing they were told were to not have sex in anyone’s bed or in front of the fridge, causing Suho’s face to turn red and hide behind Kris.

 

All of this ran through Kris’ head and a thousand more. All those kisses, all those dates, all those nights they have spent with each other. Kris couldn’t go another one without him.

 

That last night when he saw Suho awake hadn’t been a pleasant one. Suho had just bought the tea from when he went outside on his walk. Kris told him not to drink it, that he had already had so much that day. Suho agreed and they just talked for a while on Kris’ bed, but their usual chitchat quickly turned into something ugly.

 

They were arguing on how to deal with whatever it was trying to kill Taemin. Suho thought it was the D.A.S group. Kris said it was impossible, it must have been some wannabe cult or just a random serial killer. Suho thought that they were responsible for the genome editing they did on Taemin. Kris thought Lay was lying, desperate to prove himself right. Suho called him out for being stubborn and not wanting to listen to anyone’s opinion. Kris said that Suho was stupid, an idiot, who already knew that this was Kris’ belief and that he should know better, that Suho was never going to be able to change it.

 

Kris realized he was being harsh, and Suho quickly left after that, wanting to prepare the tea he bought earlier. Kris told him that leaving during an argument was not a good trait for a leader.

 

Suho came back, cup in his hand as he tried to drink the whole thing. He started to appear uneasy, probably because of Kris’ comment. That when Kris, knowing he did something wrong, asked Suho to stay the night, to which Suho just accepted and didn’t talk to him again.

 

Those were Kris’ last words to his boyfriend. All these negative comments, all of these flaws that he pointed out with Suho becoming hurt because of those words. Kris regretted it, he regretted everything he said.

 

The truth was, he thought Suho was way better than himself. And he knew that Suho was sensitive, and yet Kris had the audacity to tell that to someone he supposedly cared about. Knowing Suho went to sleep with those thoughts in his head.. it hurt. It hurt too much.

 

He was glad that Lay brought him back to life. He would have killed himself if Suho passed away.

 

These same thoughts were running through his head again when he heard “….water…….my…….hurts….”

 

Kris snapped up his head, face to face with a pale Suho, who was trying to speak.

 

“Kris………..I………..please…………”

 

Kris brought him his water, not before practically hugging his boyfriend to death, apologies being the only thing coming out of his mouth for the next hour that they were together.

**Author's Note:**

> So... that was tiresome. 
> 
> Next chapter will most likely be next Thursday or this Saturday since I get more time at my mom's house. Tell me your theories!
> 
> I-got-Army-L-Shawol 4 life.
> 
> Or 3. These chains? 3 dollars. 
> 
> (0) So 4 more lol


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